Aria's Lament
by Random Equinox
Summary: From Omega, the blackened heart of the Terminus Systems, Cerberus is free to wage war against the entire galaxy. Shepard is determined to stop them. Aria wants to kick them off her throne. Someone's gotta make sure those idiots don't get themselves killed. And today, that someone is me: Garrus Vakarian.
1. The Queen Strikes Back

_Author's Note: This will be the third in a loose trilogy of fanfics, following 'Something from the Citadel' and 'Archangels of Light and Darkness,' and will therefore be narrated by Garrus Vakarian. Unlike the other fanfics, which were original works, this will be a novelization of ME3: Omega. Readers who follow my other works may wish to note that the events of 'Aria's Lament' take place between Chapters 46 and 47 of 'The Hero Rises.'_

* * *

 **Aria's Lament**

 **Chapter 1: The Queen Strikes Back**

They were waiting outside the Citadel.

Pirates who'd spent their lives preying on the weak and innocent. Hardened mercenaries willing to sell their soul for a few credits. All answering the call of Aria T'Loak. Yeah, _that_ Aria. The so-called Pirate Queen of Omega... before Cerberus took over and drove her into exile. She'd been stuck on the Citadel ever since the war began, biding her time, gathering her forces. Forces that had been parked outside without anyone challenging them.

Maybe C-Sec hadn't noticed them at all, in which case a serious review of hiring procedures and security protocols was in order. Or maybe word had come from the top to leave them alone—rumour had it that Aria and the asari Councillor were… close. Somehow, I don't think the average civvie would sleep well knowing all these dangerous men and women were lurking nearby. Certainly they wouldn't think of going to join these criminals and guns-for-hire.

I'd known these dangerous criminals and so on and so forth were here for almost a week now. I was now on my way to join them. There are times when I think I need my head examined.

Especially given the state of the shuttle transporting us to the fleet. The flying junk heap had seen better days, judging by the sheer amount of rust that covered her surface, the sparks that spat fitfully from one of the consoles and the violent shaking that ran up my spine as soon as we powered up the thrusters. Not to mention the spirits-damned alarm that was howling away. "This is a promising start," I managed.

"Yeah," my companion frowned. "Hang on." He ran a quick diagnostic.

"Well?"

"Stabilizers are a bit wonky."

"You don't say."

"And life support seems to be failing."

"What?"

"Hang on." He entered a few commands.

To my relief, the alarm stopped. "Oh, that's much better," I said. "Now maybe you could fix the stabilizers too."

"Oh, I didn't actually fix anything. All I did was disable the alarm for the next hour."

My eyes widened. "You what?"

"Relax, Garrus. We'll rendezvous with Aria's fleet well within that time. And if we don't, we still have another four or five hours of breathable air to call for help.

"Assuming the shuttle doesn't spring a leak and the comm system's doesn't crap out."

"That's what I love about you, Garrus: your enduring optimism."

Needless to say, I held my breath as much as possible during the trip.

It quickly became clear that our destination was a cruiser. What surprised me was the fact that it was a Cerberus cruiser. You could tell it was Cerberus by the enormous yellow and black hexagonal logo stamped on her hull. Either Aria had decided to make nice with the Illusive Man after everything he'd done or she had captured the cruiser and chosen this particular bit of ill-gotten spoils as her flagship. My bet was on the latter.

As the cruiser grew closer and closer, I cast my thoughts back at how things had gotten to this point.

It started, as many things do, with a woman.

* * *

It was evening when she came in. I heard her footsteps first, heels heralding her arrival. She could wait, I decided. These calibrations wouldn't finish themselves and I had a vested interest in their success. Tapping the controls with my talons, I waited for the numbers to scroll across my screens: 0.01. The weapon system calibrations had been improved by a net total of 0.44 percent. A miniscule number, but sometimes it was the little things that mattered. Especially when you don't have much of a life.

Saving the latest settings, I turned around to greet my visitor. She was human, like most of the crew and guests currently aboard this ship. Her hair was black like the void around us, gracefully flowing down to her shoulders. Her skin was pale, like alabaster or pearl. Her clothes were reminiscent of a military uniform, but made of the finest and most expensive fabrics and cut to show off every curve of her body to stunning perfection.

I knew she was trouble the moment I saw her.

"Miranda," I greeted her.

"Garrus."

"This is about Shepard."

"Naturally."

That would be Commander Shepard. You've probably heard about him. Systems Alliance soldier who'd completed the elite N7 program. Hero of Elysium. First human Spectre. Madman who'd warned about the coming of mythical creatures bent on our annihilation. Traitor who may or may not have sided with Cerberus. Supposed war criminal who'd wiped out the Bahak system. Hero tasked with stopping the Reapers—see earlier, under mythical creatures. Miracle worker who'd spearheaded efforts to cure the genophage and bring peace between the quarians and the geth.

His recent accomplishments were all made with the goal of taking back his homeworld, stopping the Reapers from slaughtering or harvesting just about every sapient species in the galaxy and winning the war. But there had been setbacks and failures, some due to Cerberus—a xenophobic pro-human group who had gone from acts of terrorism to launching a full-fledged military campaign, dividing our focus when we desperately needed to consolidate and gather our strength against the Reapers. They had to be stopped. And we had a plan to do that.

Unless things had changed. "Second thoughts about attacking all those targets?"

"No," Miranda shook her head. "As we discussed during our last meeting, Cerberus has been running amok for far too long. It's time to arrest their momentum. Furthermore, if there's any chance we can draw some of the forces away from Omega, we have to take it."

"Then it's the Omega part of the plan that has you concerned."

"Precisely."

I wasn't really surprised. Earlier today, Shepard had met with Aria. At long last, she had decided to take back what she thought was rightfully hers—and she wanted Shepard to help her. By himself. Shepard, Aria and an army of ne'er-do-wells were expected to storm through the mass relay and attack Omega, which was no doubt heavily fortified by this point. Hence why we had decided to fold this operation into a larger offensive against Cerberus. Our hope was that we could draw off some of the ships and troops guarding Omega, thus turning Aria's plan from a suicide mission to something that had a minute chance of success.

But there was no getting around the fact that Shepard would be going solo, with no backup whatsoever—something that I couldn't help but be concerned about. If he went on this idiotic venture all by himself and wound up KIA, his death would be disastrous for the war effort. The damage to our collective morale alone was incalculable. Besides, he was my friend. If I let him go alone and something happened, I don't know what I would do with myself.

"You have an idea," I guessed. Well, not much of a guess: this was Miranda we were talking about. She had a vested interest in Shepard's wellbeing too, given that he _was_ her boyfriend.

"Several."

I knew it. "And the best one is…?"

"You go with him."

"Me?"

"You've been there, Garrus. You lived and fought on Omega for months. You know the territory, the layout, the players."

Yeah. For all the good that did. I'd spent months after Shepard died trying to figure out what to do. I'd failed Shepard by letting him die, but maybe I could still make a difference. So I decided to travel out to the Terminus Systems and clean up Omega. Yeah, just like that. I put a crew together. I started hitting back at all the criminal filth with my new comrades-in-arms. Intercepted their shipments of weapons, drugs and contraband. Shut down their operations one by one. Made the predators and monsters afraid for a change. We were starting to make a difference.

Then I was betrayed by one of my own. Lantar Sidonis. Fellow turian, fellow vigilante… until he was captured by the Blue Suns and sold us out. Thanks to him, my squad was wiped out while I was off chasing a false lead. I'd failed them, just like I'd failed Shepard. And my punishment would have been to die at the hands of the mercs I had fought, just another casualty in the dim streets of Omega.

Miranda knew that, or she should have. So all I said was "I did fight on Omega. And almost died there." I tilted my head towards her, showing her the scars I'd gained from a rocket to the face, and added, "Or don't you remember?"

"I remember. I also remember that the Blue Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack—the three strongest and most organized mercenary groups in the galaxy—had to combine their forces to take you down because you had become an intolerable threat to the security of their operations. And even then, you were holding your own."

"That was over a year ago, Miranda. The streets—and the players—can change awfully fast in that time. Especially when Cerberus has a free hand in the interior decorating."

"Granted. But you still have a local's perspective on how things operate on Omega. Shepard could use that. More importantly, he could use someone who's on his side. Someone who will have his back, no matter what. Unless you trust Aria to have his best interests at heart."

She had me there. "What about the rest of the plan? If I go with Shepard, that leaves you with three teams and one team leader."

Miranda had an idea about that too. "Consolidate Teams One and Two together under my command. Kaidan can lead Team Three."

"Call them something else to avoid confusion," I advised. "A and B, for instance."

"Fair point. I'll consider it. What about you?"

Rather than giving a reply, I simply reached behind the console and pulled out a go-bag. It was packed with clothes, hardsuit components, weapons and thermal clips—all the essentials one might need when embarking on a suicide mission with virtually no chance of success whatsoever.

"You were already prepared to join him," Miranda beamed.

"Naturally. Someone's gotta keep that idiot out of trouble."

* * *

One of Aria's flunkies, a cranky batarian by the name of Bray, met us in the shuttle bay as soon as we'd docked. He escorted us to the bridge after making a few snide remarks. The crew—a mix of batarians, salarians and vorcha—were hard at work. But it was very clear who was in charge: Aria T'Loak. A strange mix of mouth-watering sex appeal, hard ruthlessness and cool confidence, she drew the attention of everyone who wasn't hard at work. She commanded authority through sheer force of will, and her presence was undeniable.

She was talking to another asari when we arrived, one who was definitely worried. _"—we're out-shipped four to one, and most of our vessels are transports with limited firepower."_

Which pretty much lined up with the intel we'd gathered, much to my dismay.

"We're not here to win a space battle, Jarral," Aria reassured her. "We just have to punch through their line."

"That's all?" I called out. "And here I thought it would be difficult."

Aria cut the transmission and turned to face us. Shepard waved at her cheekily. "So you've commandeered a Cerberus cruiser," he chirped. "Love what you've done with the place. Very homey."

"The guest of honour has arrived," Aria said sarcastically, ignoring his attempts at humour. "We can finally start." She gave me a steady stare before adding "And you brought a 'plus one'. Garrus, isn't it?"

Figured she would recognize me. She'd had ample time to gather a dossier on Shepard's known associates, and I'd spent a lot of time with him over the last few years. For that matter, I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she knew of my previous stint as Archangel. But I couldn't let that bother me. Nor could I let any fear or doubt show itself. Aria would pick up on that in a heartbeat. So I walked up to her with a confident swagger, as if I owned the cruiser and was only suffering her presence out of the goodness of my heart. "That's me. Sorry to disappoint, but I don't do autographs."

"He knows his way around a gun," Shepard added, without adding I was someone he could trust. Some things don't need to be said out loud. "Besides, this'll be challenging enough as it is. We need all the help we can get."

Aria's eyes narrowed. It was obvious she wasn't thrilled about Shepard's decision. Probably because Shepard had once again flouted her authority. Still, she was nothing if not pragmatic. If his decision would help her achieve her goals, I was confident that she would overlook this one deviation.

"Let me guess," I said, "you're planning on infiltrating the enemy fleet."

"Exactly." While Bray sat down at the helm, Aria pulled up a holographic map of the Sahrabarik system. She zoomed in on Omega before continuing. "We position ourselves to strike a crippling blow, then my forces join the fun."

"Your associate Jarral wasn't wrong," he warned, lowering his voice so only the three of us could hear. "We may not be fighting a space battle, but our ships do need to survive long enough to deliver the troops and they're seriously outnumbered. A lot could go wrong."

"The assault's been planned for weeks, Shepard. For now, just sit back. Let me steer."

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Not the best start to our partnership, Aria."

"How things begin isn't nearly as important as how they end," Aria replied.

I took a step forward and held out a datapad, trying to defuse the situation. "We've managed to gather some intel on the ships Cerberus uses. Schematics, structural weaknesses, that sort of thing. At least let us transmit the data to your fleet so they can have as much 'fun' as possible."

She stared at me silently before snapping her fingers. A salarian dropped what he was doing and leapt forward. "Yeah, boss?"

Aria snatched the datapad from my talons and tossed it to him. "Look it over. If there's anything new there, send it to the fleet."

"Got it."

With that done, she walked around the holo-table to the helm. "Bray, move through the relay. Signal the fleet to wait. They only follow on _my_ command." She added the emphasis as a reminder of who was really in charge around here.

"Yes, ma'am."

Bray might have had some attitude problems, but he was a decent pilot. The trip through the mass relay was one of the smoother ones I'd faced. Before long, we'd entered the Terminus Systems.

It had been a year since I traveled the Terminus Systems, but one constant was still true: at its blackened, twisted heart was a space station of horrors called Omega. Even now, I could remember its streets, all slick with blood and piss and vomit. Every corridor lit up by gaudy neon signs the colour of childhood candy, the kind that you desperately wanted no matter what the cost. Every street teeming with bars and clubs and shops, offering everything at bargain prices. Heroes rubbed elbows with villains there, making bargains and deals that could ruin some poor sucker's life. Because there was always a sucker, a patsy, a pawn. The trick was to make sure it wouldn't be you.

Aria marched around the holo-table and pulled up the sensor logs of the fleet guarding Omega. The intel was right: there were a _lot_ of them. She singled out one ship and sent the coordinates to Bray. "Head for the command ship," she ordered.

Everyone fell silent, as the tension became thick enough to cut with an omni-blade. The command ship grew larger and larger as we approached. The beeps and chimes of the computers were the only noises we heard.

Then the comm crackled to life. _"Cruiser,"_ a harsh, guttural voice droned out. _"I don't have you on the flight plan. Identify yourself."_

Aria signalled to Bray, who pulled up an audio file on his console and hit the start button. _"This is Captain Lentz,"_ a tired voice said aloud. _"Run voice recognition: alpha, tango, zed. We took damage. Seeking repairs."_

" _Identity confirmed, Captain. Hold for approach authorization."_

"Do I want to know how you got the captain to say that?" Shepard murmured as soon as Bray closed the comm channel.

"Probably not. Let's just say we gave a choice between the easy way and the hard way."

Undoubtedly, they extracted the intel from him the hard way. And probably enjoyed it. Shepard had come to the same conclusion, judging by the look in his eyes. But neither of us said anything. We had to look forward, not back. So forward we went, drifting between Cerberus ships towards the one we were interested in.

"That's right," Aria said softly. "Nice and slow."

"Be patient," Shepard added. "Get as close as you can."

Unfortunately, Aria chose that point to run out of patience. "Fire!" she barked.

The floor plating trembled as the gunnery crews opened up with everything they had. High-yield rounds spat out to strike our target, setting off fiery explosions along its flank. As the command ship lurched to the side, a trail of debris in its wake, Aria's ship darted through. "Signal the fleet through the relay!" Aria called out.

I turned to look at the tactical display. The sensors detected that the mass relay powering up. Within seconds, ship contacts began popping up one by one. Before long, the entire fleet had arrived. Powering up their shields and weapons, they began an attack run.

"We're through," Aria nodded in satisfaction. "Head straight for the station."

"Three ships closing to starboard on an intercept course," Bray warned.

"Full power to engines," Aria ordered. "Hold your fire until we're within five hundred metres."

"We might get pretty singed at that range," I reminded her.

She gave me a feral smile. "Not as singed as they're going to get."

The floor rocked as we took a direct hit. Our shields were still holding, but who knew how long that would hold. "Fifty thousand metres," Bray intoned. We barrelled onward towards the Cerberus ships, shrugging off hit after hit—though not without cost. Before long, our shields had dropped to eighty percent. "Two thousand metres," Bray called out.

At last, we got close enough. "Five hundred metres."

"Fire!" Aria yelled.

Our ship opened up with a full barrage of mass accelerator rounds and torpedoes. The lead hostile exploded. We flew right through the backlash, weapons still firing, taking out a second ship and seriously damaging the third.

"We're out of their weapons range," Bray reported.

"Resume course."

Bray nodded, making a few adjustments to his console. Then he frowned. "We're being hailed by the general," he told us.

"This should be interesting," she smirked. "Put him through."

Aria marched straight for the holo-table as Bray complied. The display of Omega shrank and disappeared, replaced by a tall human with dark hair—including a goatee—and darker eyes. He was wearing a Cerberus uniform, carefully cut to convey the image of a high-ranking officer. _"Aria,"_ he nodded, crossing his arms. _"I knew this had to be you. You'll never make it. Call off your attack now."_

"You're barking up the wrong tree, General," she smiled coldly, "but maybe you can convince my partner."

Taking his cue, Shepard stepped forward. "General Petrovsky, I assume."

" _Commander Shepard,"_ Petrovsky returned, favouring him with an elegant nod. _"I've heard great things about you."_

Shepard smiled politely. "I doubt the Illusive Man thinks of me that highly."

" _I do my own research, Commander, and I draw my own conclusions. You've received several commendations for your accomplishments during your service to the Alliance, all of which were well earned. And you continued your record of accomplishments during your time with Cerberus, which was why I was sorry to learn you left us. We all sabotage ourselves in nefarious ways. Perhaps deep down, you believe you haven't earned the accolades and praise you received. Perhaps you fear success."_

Whether he knew it or not, I suspected he'd struck a chord with Shepard. I'd seen him at his best, but I'd also seen him at his worst. When he was at his lowest, overwhelmed with his duties and responsibilities, broken in the belief that he had failed. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. This was yet another battle that Shepard would have to wage on his own.

"I left Cerberus because I didn't want to live in a galaxy where hatred was praised and atrocities were commonplace," Shepard said. "Humanity's future lies hand in hand with the other races. You knew that once. Is that what you feared, Petrovsky? The idea of being part of something bigger and greater than yourself."

" _Hand in hand, you say? Is that why you allied yourself with criminals and thugs? On an ill-advised assault with such a paltry handful of ships? You must be desperate to begin this game with such a reckless move. Your partner clearly thinks that seeing you will unsettle me. An interesting gambit, but ultimately futile. Now it's my turn._

" _I see you've gone to the trouble of augmenting that ship with Silaris armouring, Aria. An exorbitant waste. I've made improvements to Omega's outer defences. My cannons will cut through you at will."_

"He sounds pretty confident," I whispered to Shepard.

He gave the barest of nods. "Yeah, he does."

" _So again, I say turn back."_

Leaning forward, Aria favoured him with a cold smile. "Let's see what you've got, Oleg. End transmission."

Petrovsky's image shimmered away, replaced by the previous status display of Omega. "That went well," I tried.

Aria ignored me. "Set preset course—we're ramming the station. Everyone, brace for impact."

Shepard's eyes widened. "What?"

"That's your brilliant plan?" I cried out.

"Omega's kinetic barrier will stop my ships from landing. I equipped this cruiser with disrupters to take them out on impact. Don't worry," she added, "we'll probably survive the crash."

All around me, people were running to their stations or focusing on their work. They knew that this was it. That this was the big moment. The only ones who didn't know about this beforehand were Shepard… and yours truly. Like I said: I need my head examined.

"We're being targeted!" was the only warning we got before the barrage began. A blistering beam of incandescent energy blazed out. Bray managed to dodge that, along with several more bursts of more conventional fire. Then a second beam swept across the vastness of space. It only grazed us, but the entire ship shook.

"Shields gone! All systems failing!" Bray cried out.

"We can make it!" Aria insisted. She was defiant, steadfast… but her eyes betrayed her, nervously glancing at one of the screens.

Turning my head, I took a closer look at that screen. Based on the readouts it displayed, I decided that Bray wasn't joking: shields were gone, helm control was out, weapons were gone, primary power was offline. The only things still functioning were the secondary power relays and the comm—and who knew how long that would last.

Shepard came to the same conclusion. "Aria, don't be stupid!" he scolded, as another barrage hit the cruiser. "Sound the evac."

Aria looked around, perhaps hoping beyond hope that we could still make it. But even she had to acknowledge the severity of the situation. "Damn it," she cursed, slamming a fist on the holo-table. "Abandon ship! Program escape pods for the station."

"Let's go!" Shepard chimed in. "Everybody out! There's no time!"

One by one, everyone got up from their stations and headed for the door. I was right on their heels when I saw Shepard slow down. "Come on!" he shouted at one of the salarians, who'd taken the seat Bray had vacated and was trying to maintain the cruiser's trajectory. Shepard was about to go back for the salarian when the console exploded in his face. The extent of his burns, and the angle of his neck when he hit the deck, told us that he was a goner. Reaching out, I grabbed Shepard by the arm and hauled him from the bridge.

We emerged in a dark corridor. With the primary power out, only the emergency lighting provided any illumination. That and the sparks flying every which way. People were running for their lives, dodging the sparks and the random jets of pressurized gas. Not to mention the odd explosion that picked hapless men and women off their feet and sent them flying. There was no time to stop and help them. All we could do was run.

Thankfully, we caught up to Aria and dove into one of the escape pods. An asari and a vorcha were already sitting inside, staring at us with a mixture of fear and excitement. As we found a seat and buckled in, Aria shook her head. "Guess the asshole really did upgrade Omega's outer defences."

"Gee, ya think?" Shepard asked rhetorically, as a human slid in.

The escape pod launched with incredible force, shoving us into our seats so hard we couldn't even talk. We rocked back and forth as the pod shook violently. Through the window, we saw the cruiser take another hit and explode.

Then we felt another impact, followed by the shriek of tortured metal…

* * *

I opened my eyes. To my mild surprise, we were still alive. We were beaten up and bruised from all the jostling around, mind you, but we were still alive. Peering out the window, I saw something more: alleys and stained floors lit up with harsh neon. We'd made it. Against all odds, we'd made it through all the various defences, crashed through the hull and landed inside Omega itself.

"Everyone all right?" Shepard called out.

"What doesn't kill you—" I groaned.

"…just pisses you off," Aria interrupted. Either she never heard that human phrase before or she just didn't give a damn. "Everyone get ready. Cerberus must've sent troops to this location."

Through the window, I could see movement. "Count on it," I said.

"Right," Shepard nodded. "I'll go through that exit." He pointed at one of the escape pod hatches, currently located at the closest thing to the roof. "While they're distracted, you guys come out of the other hatches. We'll catch them in a crossfire."

"Works for me," I declared. Reaching over my shoulder, I pulled out my assault rifle. In close quarters, this would be a better weapon than the sniper rifle I preferred.

"Let's do it," Aria agreed, catching everyone's eye to ensure we were on the same page.

"Do we have a common comm channel to relay orders?" I asked. "If not, we should set it up now—and fast."

"Channel 38," Aria decided.

"Got it."

Shepard and I adjusted our comms accordingly. Then he stood up. "All right, then. We go in three… two…"

On "one," Shepard popped the hatch. Activating his cloak, he disappeared from view. A second later, the rest of us stormed out. Shepard was already busy, having stabbed one Cerberus goon with his omni-blade. Another one was lining up a shot, only to get cut down by Aria. Spinning around, the other asari and I focused on the next two hostiles. She took a bullet to the chest and dropped, but her sacrifice bought me the time I needed to take them out.

Shepard, Aria and I found cover behind some crates. "Hope the other escape pods made it," Aria said.

As I watched, the other human and the vorcha were cut down by Cerberus reinforcements. I fired a few burst back before ducking down. Aria cursed under her breath before turning to Shepard. "All right. What's our play?"

"You're asking him?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Aria ignored me. "This is what I brought you for, Shepard: ground assault. In combat, what you say goes."

Garrus and I looked at each other. "Aria relinquishing command?" he asked aloud.

"I'll believe it when I see it," I snorted.

"I can be a team player, Commander," Aria said dryly. "The fact is I know where we need to go and you can get us there."

Put that way, it made sense. Aria might want to control everything and everyone, but even she knew that Shepard's combat skills exceeded her own. She'd be a fool not to take advantage of his tactical abilities, and if there was one thing she was not, it was a fool.

"All right," Shepard nodded. "What's our target?"

"Hit the Defence System Station," Aria replied. "Shut down Omega's outer defences so my ships can land. If we don't, they'll be blown to bits like we were." Leaning around the corner, she took out a Cerberus soldier.

"Okay," Shepard said, "Garrus, take the left; Aria cover the right. Let's see how this works out."

* * *

After tossing a grenade at the nearest hostile, Shepard engaged his cloak and disappeared. Not wanting to waste any time, I switched to my sniper rifle. There was a wounded Centurion limping away, possibly the victim of Shepard's grenade. Whatever the reason, he was as good a target as any. Another Centurion collapsed as Shepard shimmered back into view. Quickly looking around, he crouched down and darted ahead.

Aria was doing a fine job keeping up with us, having dispatched a pair of assault troopers. While Shepard signalled her to advance, I spotted a third assault trooper trying to flank us. I popped his head like an overripe melon. That's two for me, two for Aria and one for Shepard. Just in case you were keeping score.

Once Aria was in position, Shepard directed me to move forward. Clearly, his reconnaissance had indicated the coast was clear. So he decided to have us 'advance by fire and movement,' as the humans say. While I pondered how they came up with that phrase, Shepard dropped another assault trooper, who was covering a prime piece of cover. Sliding behind the crate that the trooper had been guarding, I spotted a Centurion, his shields fully charged. Fully charged until I fried them with my EMP, that is. While I opened fire on the now vulnerable Centurion, Shepard tried to land a headshot on an assault trooper. To his surprise, and mine, he missed. Shaking his head, he extended his arm and set the slippery bastard on fire. The now-burning trooper screamed for a good couple seconds before Aria put him out of his misery.

Meanwhile, there were more Centurions on the way. Seeing that my EMP generator had recharged, I deployed another pulse. This time, it didn't completely drain his shields, but it got me most of the way there. As I fell back to the old reliable standby of hot lead, Shepard began shooting at another Centurion and assigned a third to Aria. That's right: we were evenly matched.

At least, until a fourth Centurion successfully flanked us and opened fire. By that point, Shepard and I had both dealt with our targets and I was ready to fire off another EMP. Poor idiot didn't know what hit him.

And that was it. No more hostiles. I ran a quick scan to make sure, only to come up empty.

"Our pod took out the main exit," Aria called out. "If we can find the control panel, we can lower the blast doors."

Naturally, Shepard was too busy searching for loot to acknowledge her. And I was busy covering him in case another hostile decided to sneak up on us. So she had to condescend to find the panel herself. By the time she did, Shepard had emptied every medkit he could find. The two of us took up firing positions as she activated the blast door controls.

As Aria joined us, she got on the comm. "Aria to fleet. You alive out there?"

" _Barely,"_ Jarral replied. _"Holding our own with the Cerberus fleet, but Omega's defences are shredding us!"_

"Keep my army intact, Jarral," Aria reminded her. "That is your only job."

By that point, the blast doors had lowered enough for me to target another Centurion with an EMP. While Aria and I ganged up on him, Shepard amused himself by finding two Guardians and teaching them that putting slits in their shields was a bad idea.

"Tell your boss I'm coming for him!" Aria taunted the Centurion we were shooting. He never got a chance to reply as her next shot dropped him like a rock. "Never mind," she grinned ferally, "I'll tell him myself."

"Aria, Garrus: reload and search the bodies for thermal clips," Shepard instructed. That task took less than a minute. In that time, Shepard had reloaded his sniper rifle, pocketed a few more clips, grabbed some salvage and scanned an assault rifle mod. One has to admire his efficiency, I decided. Even if his kleptomania left something to be desired.

"Through there," Aria directed, pointing to an elevator on our right. We quickly piled in. Aria selected the upper floor and hit the door controls with a little more force than would normally be required. As the doors closed, she raised a hand to her ear. "Ground team, report in. Bray, you there?"

" _Affirmative, but only six pods made it. Various entry points."_

"Rally them to you, then head for the rendezvous hangar," she instructed. "Start prepping for our ships to land."

The doors finally slid open and we entered a large room. It was the entrance to the Defence System, judging by the big neon sign that greeted us. Good to know we were on the right track.

"Let's hustle!" Aria urged. "Every minute, more of my ships get obliterated out there."

"First we clear the room, then we hustle," Shepard replied.

"Otherwise, we could get ambushed and wiped out," I chimed in. "In which case, everyone will get obliterated."

Aria practically ground her teeth in frustration, but even she had to concede that Shepard made the right call. Besides, she did say that she'd obey his commands in combat. So we cleared the room, checking every nook and cranny. Shepard picked up a datapad as we went along and skimmed their contents. Evidently, there wasn't anything worth mentioning.

Once we were satisfied that we hadn't missed anything, we took a right and entered what appeared to be a ventilation room. Like all the other rooms, we'd gone through, it had a strictly utilitarian and industrial feel. Dull metal all around. Large pipes the colour of rust—or dried blood—snaking everywhere. Bursts of flame flickering from various vents, occasionally bursting into a roar.

Oh yeah: and there was a greeting party waiting for us. "They're here!" one of the Cerberus soldiers yelled. "Get em! Back up is on the way."

Of course. Because why would it be any other way?

"You heard them," Shepard said. "Let's see what we can do before their reinforcements arrive."

We quickly found cover and got to work. Shepard fired a glancing shot at a combat engineer, one that managed to collapse his shields. I was about to fire my own shot when I noticed a second engineer nearby. Highlighting my new target on the HUD, I launched an EMP. Seeing what I was up to, Shepard fired a stream of plasma. The resulting explosion took out both engineers.

By that point, I had the least number of kills. Assists, sure. But in terms of scoring the final blow, I was last. Time to change that. Unfortunately, there was only one more engineer in the vicinity. He was so desperate to avoid Aria that he ran right into my sights.

"Getting close," Aria said once we were sure the fighting had stopped. "We need to move, Shepard. Those cannons have to be stopped."

We slowly made our way through the room. Well, Shepard and I did. He was busy looking for spare thermal clips, the occasional bit of loot and random datapads to read. I was busy looking for anyone who was trying to spring an unwelcome surprise on us. Aria was waiting by the exit, fingers tapping impatiently on her shotgun. "Taking the scenic route, are we?" she asked acidly.

"Clearing the room," I replied.

"What he said," Shepard said gamely. "Shall we?"

Aria shook her head. "The next area needs to be repressurized."

"Do it," Shepard said. "Those reinforcements are bound to show up sooner or later. Might as well take them out while we're waiting."

Take them out. Just like that. Gotta love that optimism. Though I suppose it wasn't completely unwarranted.

"Initiating," Aria said, entering the relevant command. "Now let's get ready to greet our… guests."

We didn't have to wait long. The steady stomp of armoured boots on metal heralded the arrival of the reinforcements. "Intruders located! Stop them here!"

"Stop this!" Shepard said cheerfully, lobbing another grenade.

To our surprise, that seemed to slow them down. Either they were really leery of things going boom or they were waiting for further reinforcements.

Or maybe they were just trying to draw our attention. I looked to the left. To the right. Then I looked in a direction that many soldiers often forget: up. "Hostiles dropping from above!" I warned, snapping off a quick shot. Sadly, I missed. To make matters worse, one of them had the presence of mind to drop a smoke grenade for cover so the rest of his comrades could jump from the level above.

Unfortunately for them, Shepard and I had long since modified our sniper rifles with scopes that could cut through the smoke and locate targets hiding within. They were just digital silhouettes, mind you, but even that was sufficient for our purposes. I emptied my clip, racking up two more kills.

"Don't let them through that door!"

" _Repressurization at 47 percent,"_ Omega's VI informed us.

As I reloaded, Shepard scored another kill. Aria did not. Evidently she didn't have any gadgets or upgrades that could pierce the gloom. Instead, she seemed to be focusing on crowd control: keeping the Cerberus goons at bay where Shepard and I could best deploy our sniper rifles. Despite our earlier concerns, she was living up to her claim of being a team player.

Time for me to do the same: spotting a Centurion trying to touch down, I zapped his shields. Well, most of them. "Aria, you packing any high-yield rounds or special ammo?"

In response, she loaded something in her shotgun and fired it at the Centurion. She raised an eyebrow when his shields flared and exploded. "Impressive," she conceded.

"Yeah. Not bad," I said nonchalantly.

" _Repressurization at 79 percent."_

Shepard moved ahead, sniper rifle sweeping back and forth. He didn't find anyone to shoot or set on fire. Nor did he find anything worth looting. I'm not sure which upset him more.

" _Repressurization complete. Access enabled."_

Turning around, Shepard joined Aria and I at the door. We moved into a corridor—and immediately stopped short. "One of our pods," Aria said.

Clearly the reason why this area need repressurizing. The entire pod was on fire—either because one of its internal fuel cells had ruptured or it had hit a gas line. I scanned the pod with my omni-tool for life-signs, but came up empty. "No survivors," I reported.

"We were lucky," Shepard said. "Let's move."

Gingerly, we made our way down the corridor, giving the burning pod a wide berth. The door at the other end was locked. As Shepard began bypassing the door's internal mechanisms, Jarral gave us a report. _"We lost two more transports! Can't keep up evasive manoeuvres much longer!"_

"We're right outside the defence station," Aria replied. "Hold tight!"

That was when Shepard broke through the lock and the doors slid open. With the plight of those ships—and our reinforcements—in mind, we hurried into the defence station. There was nothing to greet us but bare metal and harsh red holo-displays, so we turned left and spread out. Up ahead, I spotted a generator of some sort.

"They're here! Defend the station!" someone called out, conveniently giving away his position. Shepard and I promptly showed him just how much of a mistake he'd made. Between my EMP and Shepard's plasma, it was hard to tell for sure, but I had a feeling that Shepard landed the kill shot. Meanwhile, Aria was busy alternating between verbal taunts and hot lead, the latter being more lethally effective against the eager assault trooper who'd tried to advance on his own.

Spotting some movement, I lifted my sniper rifle and scored a direct hit on an assault trooper trying to sneak up on our right. Shepard turned to the left and killed a Guardian. Aria hurled a burst of biotics at a combat engineer, driving him back, before gunning down another trooper. Lifting my sniper rifle again, I tracked the engineer and gently squeezed the trigger. One shot, one kill.

"Clear!" Aria called out. "Get to the controls."

Shepard once again ignored her, choosing to make sure the room was actually clear—and indulge his compulsive need to loot everything that wasn't nailed down. So it was left up to Aria and I to access the controls. It didn't take long before I found the status display for Omega's outer defences. A bit of experimenting uncovered the commands needed to shut them down. Through the windows, we saw the turrets fire one last volley before powering down.

"Jarral," Aria said over the comm, "defences are down. Signal the surviving ships to converge on the rendezvous point."

" _Copy that. Approach trajectories plotted. We're already queuing up."_

Aria switched comm channels. "Bray, come in. Status."

" _Rendezvous site secured. Hangar doors enabled. We'll have them open soon."_

"Need them open now," Aria ordered. "My birds are coming in. Prep for reception."

By that point, Shepard had finally satisfied his kleptomania. "What's this about a rendezvous point?"

"That's where we're headed. It's a bunker I established on D-deck for my… more sensitive operations."

Pirate queen's doing things that she doesn't want her subjects to know about? I'm shocked, I tell you. Absolutely shocked.

"It's utterly impenetrable, with its own secret hangar and dock."

As Aria explained the details, a familiar look crept over Shepard's face. It's hard to explain if you haven't seen it before. Turians say it's the spirits trying to bring something to your attention. Given that I'm not really what you'd call a conventional turian, I'll use the human phrase: his gut was telling him something.

"Independent power source, life support, munitions. You'll see."

Shepard and I spotted the camera at the same time, but he was the one who pulled his gun out and blew it to smithereens. Too little too late, unfortunately. I crouched down and idly sifted through what was left. "Hard to say if it had audio feeds as well as video, but I'm fairly sure it was transmitting," I said.

"If nothing else, it was panning around," Shepard agreed. "Well, Aria, I hope this bunker is as impenetrable as you say it is, 'cuz there's a good chance the general knows where we're going."

"Then no time for sightseeing," Aria decided. "Take the far exit. I'll lock down the way we came."

"Sounds like a plan," Shepard nodded. "Let's move out."


	2. Old Flames, New Problems

**Chapter 2: Old Flames, New Problems**

The battle to retake Omega wasn't exactly going well. Several of our ships had been destroyed, along with whatever soldiers they were carrying. We were still consolidating our forces. And the secret bunker we were supposed to use as our base of operations probably wasn't a secret any more. Just once, I'd like things to go my way. But then, the spirits never looked that favourably upon me.

As we exited the Defence System Station, Aria got on the comm. "Bray, stay sharp! You might get visitors."

One of the few men and women who'd made it to Omega in one piece, Bray had been tasked with setting up the bunker, consolidating our forces and giving Aria a staging ground to launch the next phase of her takeover. A task that would now be significantly harder. The dismay and resignation he must've felt was reflected in the simplicity of his response: _"Terrific."_

Aria went straight for the elevator, not even bothering to see if we were following her. She was already calling for the garage level by the time we got in. There was no irritating music to entertain us during the ride. Nor were there any witty conversations like we used to have back when we were helping Shepard hunt Saren. Above us, a screen showed live vid-footage of battles between Cerberus troops and our forces. Otherwise, we were just alone with our thoughts.

" _Alert, alert! Defence System Station compromised."_

The VI had just figured out that we'd shut down the outer defences—several minutes _after_ the deed was done. Gotta love technology. Though that did bring up a concern of mine: "Do we need to worry about anyone turning the defences back on?"

"Nope." Shepard tapped his omni-tool. "I planted a little virus in the mainframe. Nobody will be able to do anything with them for a while."

" _Outer defences down, unrecoverable."_

"Told you," he grinned.

"You'd better be able to remove that virus," Aria said. "I'd like to be able to defend this station once it's under my control again."

"How about we take the station back first _before_ worrying about those details?" I suggested.

"Fine."

" _Armed response initiative T-752."_

"We're causing a stir," Aria observed. "Good."

The elevator came to a stop. Shepard made a beeline for a nearby wall safe. Then he slowed momentarily. Even before he dove for cover, I was pulling out my sniper rifle. Under the circumstances, there was only one thing that would interrupt his kleptomania.

Sure enough, we heard a guttural voice yell "The intruders! Open fire!"

Before they could respond, Shepard and I had already scored headshots against two assault troopers. A third one managed to squeeze off a few rounds before Aria hammered him with her biotics. Seizing the opportunity, I loaded a concussive round and fired. The resulting explosion tore him to shreds.

Seeing how three of his comrades had been wiped out in a matter of seconds, the remaining Centurion threw down a smoke grenade. He soon found out how effective a cover that was when Shepard and I scored several direct hits against his shields. Before he could retreat, Aria caught up with him, jammed her shotgun against his helmet and squeezed the trigger. She let out a whoop as his head exploded in a mist of blood and bone. "Feels good to let loose!" she cried out.

Shepard was too busy swiping credits to offer any comments. I was too busy sweeping the room for more hostiles. Once he was finished, and I'd determined that we weren't leaving anyone behind to sneak up and stab us in the back, we left the garage.

Aria took a deep breath and exhaled in satisfaction. "Ah, the Omega skyline. Now I feel like I'm back."

I stepped forward and gazed over the cityscape. Buildings made of bare metal loomed over us, free of adornment, architectural flair or any pretense of being anything other than a utilitarian place to live or work. In the distance, a harsh red glow threw them into stark relief like an ersatz sunset.

This was my home once. A hard one, to be sure. Making an honest living was challenging, almost impossible. But there was work to be done here. Necessary work, cleaning up Omega of the crime and misery that flowed through its streets and out into the galaxy like a cancer. Necessary, but ultimately futile, given how my brief tenure as Archangel had ended.

And yet, there was something about this place. Everything was so intense and vibrant. There was an energy here that was so powerful and breathtaking, if you had the courage—or audacity—to tap into it and let it feed you. Colours were more vivid here, sounds more clear, scents more intoxicating. Compared to Omega, the rest of the galaxy seemed subdued. Dull. Mundane. It was only now that I understood this simple truth. For all that I had tried to change Omega, it had changed me.

Now I had come back, to change Omega once more. Spirits only knew what change would be wrought upon me in return. '

Still reeling from this discovery, it took a while before I realized that something was amiss. I wasn't sure what at first, only that my gut was trying to tell me something. I must have looked for a good minute before it hit me: it was quiet. Too quiet.

Normally the streets were filled with citizens going about their business at all hours, the buzz of their conversations punctuated with the screams or cries of the latest victim. But not right now. Right here, right now, the silence was deafening.

For that matter, where _was_ _everyone?_ The streets were completely deserted. So were the skies, aside from a lone skycar. This was completely unheard of, as far as I knew. Either everyone had come down with a bad case of the flu or they'd finally come to their senses and abandoned this area of town… or Cerberus had instituted a curfew. Probably the last option.

"Strange. What are those things in the distance?"

I followed Aria's gaze to a shimmering translucent red field, blazing brighter than the skyline above. "Some kind of force field," I guessed.

"I'm guessing Cerberus set this up," Shepard said.

"That's not good," Aria frowned. The hint of trepidation in her voice told us how worried she was. And I didn't blame her. Regardless of their purpose, the force fields would restrict our movements and seriously hamper our efforts to take back Omega.

Shepard might have been worried too, but he settled his nerves the best way he knew how. After scooping up some salvage and scanning a pistol mod, he froze momentarily before signalling us to firing positions. As we slipped into cover, we could hear gunfire. A moment later, a pleasant voice came over the PA: _"Please be advised that any non-humans bearing weapons on this station will be shot on sight."_

"Some of my men," Aria identified.

Nice to see they were staying busy. "Well, we can't let them have _all_ the fun, now can we?" I grinned.

She returned my grin. "That kind of talk goes a long way with me, Garrus."

For once, Shepard didn't have anything to say. Instead, he started to follow the gunfire. Aria and I caught up with him at the entrance to a nearby passageway. The crates blocking our way provided some convenient cover while we looked ahead. Now that we were closer, we could see the telltale flicker of muzzle flashes accompanying the distant staccato of rapid-fire weapons. Shepard raised his sniper rifle and peered through the scope. "Cerberus up ahead," he identified. "Three hostiles. Garrus, drop an EMP on this Centurion." He highlighted the hostile through his HUD. "I'll follow up with some plasma. Aria, pick another guy to have fun with. Your choice."

"How kind," she murmured.

Shepard ignored her. "We go in three... two... one... _FIRE!"_

There was a burst of light and static as my EMP went off, followed by a fiery explosion as Shepard's plasma burst went off. The unlucky Centurion who'd taken the brunt of the blast was still reeling when Shepard finished him off once and for all with a headshot. Not to be outdone, I zoomed in on a Guardian and fired two shots through the slit in his shield-the first crippling his shields, the second popping his head like an overripe melon.

Meanwhile, Aria was showing off a new trick: she'd generated some kind of biotic... whip, which she'd used to snare the last hostile and yank him out of hiding. He was still struggling in vain when she lifted her shotgun and put him out of his misery.

We waited a few seconds to see if anyone else would join the party. Then we began leapfrogging down the corridor: first Aria, then Shepard, followed by the best and brightest.

Our caution may have been unwarranted, considering we only ran into one more Guardian. But you never know.

"We're getting close to the rendezvous," Aria told us after I took him out. "Let's move."

And we did... after Shepard emptied a medkit. We followed Aria to a nearby elevator, where Shepard promptly slowed to a halt. I braced myself for another round of looting before realizing he was staring at the gang tag spray-painted on the front. Three red horizontal line, the bottom two connected by a vertical red line, over a white circle. It looked familiar, somehow.

"I know that symbol," Aria said.

"Looks like a gang tag," Shepard tried.

"Good guess," Aria nodded. "The Talons. They used to deface my property too."

That was it! I _knew_ it looked familiar!

We entered the elevator. The Talons had more tags painted above the controls and on the floor of the elevator car. While Aria selected the desired level to go to, Shepard glanced my way. "What can you tell me about the Talons?"

"Minor gang on Omega, operating in some of the more turian neighbourhoods," I replied. "Small, but highly organized. They dabble in the usual things: drug running, weapon smuggling, extortion, killing for hire, slave trading."

"They also have trouble knowing their place," Aria scowled. "I've had to… chastise them on occasion."

"Oh?" Shepard prompted.

"Last year, they refused to pay me a cut of their red sand trafficking. All I asked was two percent off the top. But they thought they could fuck with me and get away scot free."

And nobody violated Aria's one rule. "What did you do?" I asked, curious in spite of myself.

"I ordered a hit on one of their warehouses, deep in the heart of their territory. Killed seven of their men, seized twenty pounds of red sand. When they came to parley, I upped the cut to five percent."

"They must've been pissed," Shepard observed.

Aria gave him a cold smile. "They didn't have a choice. There were consequences to defying me. It was either accept my terms or face annihilation."

That was how Aria had ruled over Omega for over two hundred years—with a cold, ruthless iron fist. Anyone who defied her or dared to question her authority would be crushed. Brutally. Until Cerberus came along. Unlike the Talons, Cerberus wasn't as easy to push around.

" _Warning: Omega has been compromised,"_ the VI called out. _"All Cerberus personnel report to stations."_

Speak of the devil…

The doors opened to reveal one Cerberus soldier who wouldn't be reporting anytime soon, as he was too busy being dead. His body was riddled with bullets and a dark red spray covered the cabinet behind him. And what was painted over the blood splatter?

"The Talon's symbol again," Shepard said. "Either they're defacing Cerberus property as well—"

"Or they're mounting some kind of resistance," Aria finished.

"Either way, they might be useful—ooh, goodies!"

Aria stared in disbelief as Shepard practically leapt forward to scoop up some scrap metal. "Does he always do this?" she asked incredulously.

"Yep," I nodded. "Used to be worse, though."

"Really?"

"He used to hunt for loot during combat."

"Really?"

"Really."

She shook her head and muttered something under her breath. Sounded like "eyes on the prize," but I wasn't sure.

Once Shepard was done satisfying his indulgence, we headed out a door on the other side of the room and onto a catwalk. We were halfway along before we realized that it was broken—and that the other side was wreathed in flames, thanks to a ruptured plasma conduit. So we hopped down to the ground below, only to discover that we were similarly trapped—this time by the force field we'd observed a few minutes ago. The blazing light from the field highlighted a lone vorcha. Standing there.

"What the hell is he doing?" Aria muttered.

Then another figure dropped to the floor, right behind him. Some kind of mech, vaguely reminiscent of the LOKI mechs Shepard and I used to tangle with last year, only more angular and menacing. The vorcha spun around…

…

Spirits.

None of us were innocent babes in the wood. We'd all seen—and done—horrible things. But the sheer amount of burns covering the vorcha was so shocking, we all inhaled sharply. His skin was a glossy brown, black in some parts, with red patches suggesting some kind of facial tattoo. His hardsuit was scorched to a similar degree. And his eyes were a solid, milky opaque white. The only thing I could see that might have caused that kind of injury… was the force field.

Snarling out loud, the vorcha lifted a submachine gun and squeezed the trigger. Bullets flew as he sprayed the air around him blindly. Clearly, he'd sensed the mech, didn't know where it was and had decided to employ the tactic humans call 'spray and pray.' Well, it didn't work. None of the bullets hit us because we were smart enough to dive for cover. None of the bullets hit the mech either, as it was smart enough to duck. Rising up, it pulled out a shotgun. At this close a range, the kill would have been an easy one. But the mech had other ideas.

Clenching its fist, the mech spawned a red omni-blade and slashed down. A spray of blood painted the floor as the vorcha collapsed. He was down—but not out of the fight. Grimacing, he stumbled to his feet, one hand clutched to his stomach in a desperate attempt to keep his guts from spilling out. The mech saw that, took one step forward and shoved the vorcha into the force field. The poor blind fool had just enough time to let out a shriek of agony before his entire body was consumed in flames. Within seconds, his charred husk disintegrated into ash.

I don't know how long we would've stared at the spot where the vorcha once stood, had the mech not turned around. Its sensors had apparently detected our presence. "Take them out!" Aria shouted.

Them? I quickly swept the area and inhaled sharply. More mechs had arrived, each a mirror image to the one that had killed the vorcha so easily. Because one well-armed and highly dangerous mech wasn't enough. Shepard vanished from sight as he activated his cloak. A shot rang out and the vorcha-killing mech dropped to the ground. A shimmer of light heralded Shepard's return as he appeared a few metres ahead. "Those mechs are coming through the force field!" he called out.

Through the force field. That would be the force field that had burned the vorcha beyond his native ability to regenerate. The force field that had later incinerated said vorcha into ash. Well, that was just wonderful.

Aria cursed, then cursed again as the mech she was firing at ducked behind a nearby cargo container. "Stand still you piece of shit!" she shouted.

I decided to let my sniper rifle do the talking for me. A few shots took out one of the mechs. Then Shepard and I ganged up on a third—I got the kill shot. Aiming to his left, Shepard let loose a burst of plasma. It hit the mech seconds before Aria hammered it with her biotics and finished it off with her shotgun.

Spotting more mechs on the other side of the force field, Shepard tossed a grenade up high, angling his throw so it would arc over the energy curtain and land… right on top of one of them. Nice! The explosion didn't finish it off, but it did weaken its armour enough for a few of my sniper rounds to blow its head to smithereens.

By that point, another mech had passed through the force field, completely unscathed by its intense energies. "Bastards are fast!" Aria hissed.

Shepard fired off another plasma burst and two rounds from his rifle. "Not fast enough," he replied.

I panned back and forth, looking for more hostiles to shoot. "Clear," I announced after my sweep was complete. That made it 15 kills for me, 12 for Shepard and 10 for Aria. Because someone had to keep score.

Aria stepped over the remnants of the vorcha, briefly muttering "Poor idiot" as an absent-minded epitaph, then scanned the force field with her omni-tool. She shook her head. "These force fields are going to be a problem."

"Any way to hack them?" Shepard asked. "Shut them down?"

"None that I can see."

"Are we blocked?"

"Not this time. Come here."

She led us to a powered-down display console set into the wall. Reaching behind it, she manipulated some controls. With a hiss, the entire wall slid upwards revealing a hidden supply room. "This way," Aria said.

Following her lead, we entered the room. Shepard immediately went about looting everything in sight. "Help yourself," Aria said sarcastically.

"Thanks." Shepard scooped up a shotgun mod, then veered over to the wall-mounted medical station. While he was busy stuffing his pockets with medi-gel, I watched Aria head over to the far corner. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Letting you in on a secret."

Aria entered a few commands into her omni-tool. Another section of wall slid up, revealing a vertical tunnel. "Down the ladder," she prompted.

Shepard went first, clinging to the sides of the ladder and sliding down rather than take the rungs. Aria was next, followed by yours truly.

When I hit the bottom and turned around, Shepard and Aria looked tense. Nothing seemed amiss, mind you. We were in the entrance of some kind of maintenance shaft. Through the gloom, I could see more randomly stacked containers and knick-knacks. But Shepard and Aria had the posture of a pair of feral cats. So did I. Somewhere, my gut told me, we were being watched.

A light appeared on my visor. Probably from Shepard, sent from his HUD. The light blinked once. Twice.

On the third time, we spun around and raised our weapons. "Who's there?" Shepard barked. "Show yourself!"

A figure emerged from the shadows and glided forward gracefully. Female, judging by her slender frame and gentle curves. She was clad in dark, muted colours from head to toe. Only her pale face, flashing from beneath a baggy hood, revealed any kind of light.

"Spirits, look who's back. Aria T'Loak."

That voice…

She stepped into the light and raised her head. A tattoo, red as blood, ran across the upper half of her face before extending over her nose and the centre of her lips in a thin vertical line. Her cheeks, free of any tattoos, were pale white, like the inner bark of a tree.

Just like all those years ago.

"Nyreen," I heard myself whisper, her name echoing through the air.

* * *

The turian system of hierarchical meritocracy, and the duty and responsibility commiserate with each of its 27 citizenship tiers, is drilled into each and every member of the Hierarchy. The first tier is given to civilians—client races like the volus and our children. The second tier covers our initial period of military service—basic stuff intended mostly to instill discipline and responsibility, considering we haven't even gone through boot camp yet. It's only after we finish boot camp that we are promoted to the third tier and officially become formal citizens of the Hierarchy. Many times, the relationships we foster during those first three tiers carry over throughout our entire lives.

Nyreen and I had gone through those first three tiers together—and we'd been at each other's throats the whole time. Both of us were competitive, trying to outdo each other at, well, just about everything. And there was the rivalry that came with being in different military specializations: she was handpicked to be a recon scout while I was recognized for my total awesomeness with the sniper rifle. Something had to snap.

It all came to a head shortly after we were assigned to the Fidelias, a turian frigate with a proud history. We'd been assigned to take out a batarian pirate squad. Tempers were short. Nerves were frayed. We needed to blow off steam, before we did something stupid that might jeopardize the mission—and put our fellow soldiers in harm's way. We needed an outlet for our anger and frustration.

Like all turian ships, the Fidelias had exercise rooms, combat simulators… and gyms for full-contact sparring. It was Nyreen who suggested the latter, so we could settle our differences once and for all. Now aside from being an incredible shot, I was also one of the two best hand-to-hand combat specialists on the ship.

Trouble was, Nyreen was the other one.

We fought for eight painful, grueling rounds—each one ending in a tie. I had reach, but Nyreen had flexibility. The gym grew more packed with each round, as turians flocked to see us beat each other to a pulp. The bets flew almost as freely as the blood and sweat.

By the ninth round, the air reeked with a mix of blood and sweat. The excitement of the spectators was matched only by their sheer volume as they chatted and laid more bets. And our de-facto referee, Nalus, was starting to get a little exasperated. But he was determined to carry out his duties nonetheless. Protocol required no less. "In accordance with law and custom," he began, "I implore you both to resolve your differences in a more amicable manner. I remind you that no matter how well managed or supervised, serious injury and even death will always remain a possibility of any duel."

One might think this was rather pointless, given that he'd given this exact same speech the last eight times. But tradition required that the referee trot out this speech each and every time. Turians do love their traditions, especially when it has any link at all to our military history.

"Bearing that in mind, I ask you, Garrus Vakarian, if you will withdraw your challenge and spare needless bloodshed for the greater good of your unit and the Hierarchy?"

"I will not," I declared.

Nalus acknowledged me with a simple nod. "Nyreen Kandros, will you concede this duel and spare needless bloodshed for the greater good of your unit and the Hierarchy?"

She shook her head in silence.

Nalus rolled his eyes in exasperation—understandable given the level of farce this situation had reached. "Let the record show that neither combatant finds a way to resolve their differences peacefully. We will therefore proceed to trial by unarmed combat… again. Nyreen Kandros, as the challenged party, you may take your position in the sparring ring first."

That too was part of military tradition. This whole thing was based on ancient rules of conduct regarding duels and trial by combat. As the challenger, I had the right to call out anyone who I felt had wronged me. I also had the right to pick the time and location of the duel.

As the challenged party, Nyreen had the right to choose the method of combat—provided it was a form that both of us were reasonably proficient at. She also had first pick at where she would start in the ring, something that would be more important if we were outdoors and, say, she wanted to position me so I was facing the sun. Not really a factor given the even lighting on a starship but, well, tradition.

I waited until Nyreen had taken her spot before stepping into the ring on the opposite side. Nalus made sure we were at an appropriate distance before giving a final nod. "May the spirits guide your hand."

It wasn't Nyreen's hand that was guided, but her foot. That is to say, she immediately went on the offensive, launching feint after feint before dropping down to one side. Her right hand met the ground, arm rigid to take her weight. Pivoting on that hand, her body swung round, her foot upwards in a scything kick that almost took the side of my face off.

If the blow hadn't sent me flying several metres away, I wouldn't have had the crucial microseconds to recover and the duel would finally be over. As it was, I spent what felt like an eternity on my knees, using my reach to keep her at bay. Finally, I feinted a kick at her left hip, then swung around to her right, slamming my elbow into her ribs with a satisfying crunch.

She stumbled back. Seizing the opportunity, I lunged forward. She dodged my punch, blocked another and spun out of reach. I kept pace, making sure she had no opportunity to catch her breath. Over and over again, she dodged, blocked and circled, relying on her speed and agility. But she couldn't keep that up for long, particularly after fighting so many previous duels. She was likely to tire and weaken. All I had to do was keep her off-balance and wear her out.

I feinted with a right-hand slash at her belly before whipping my left hand across to chop at the neck. Nyreen slid inside the blow, simultaneously deflecting my left hand while driving her own up towards my neck. Ducking down, almost to one knee, I lashed out at her kneecap. She pivoted to the side, then rolled out of the way. I pursued her, only to halt my advance when her talons flicked out in a stab to my eyes.

Over and over this continued. Strike and counterstrike. Advance and retreat. Weariness began to seep into my limbs. My breath grew heavier and more ragged. Nyreen was also growing tired. But not soon enough for my liking. Time to try something new.

I saw my chance when Nyreen mustered the energy to break into a run. Leaping up, she swung her legs around my neck, intending on using her momentum to flip me over. Looks good on the vids—or for a bunch of cheering turian spectators. But not this time.

Before she could send me flying through the air, my hands found her throat and squeezed. Instinctively, she reached up to pry my hands away, all thoughts of her original plan swept away in the burning need to survive. But I ignored her and kept squeezing.

Desperate, her legs tightened around her neck. It became a race to see who could choke the other first. Everything started to go blurry and fade away. I couldn't see what Nyreen was up to, but my hands told me they were still around her neck. So I kept squeezing…

…even as everything went dark…

…kept squeezing…

…I could feel someone picking me up and taking me away…

The next thing I knew, I was looking up at a bright light. I flinched and turned away. As my vision cleared, I realized I was in the infirmary. Nyreen was in the bed next to me.

"Oh good. The two of you are finally awake."

Nalus loomed into view. "Who won?" we croaked in unison.

He rolled his eyes. "No one—you both lost consciousness. It was a tie. Again."

I struggled to prop myself up on my elbow. "Fine. When's the next—"

"Oh no," Nalus interrupted. "That was the last round. I'm not wasting my time with another fight where the two of you beat yourself bloody and still wind up in a tie. We've got a lock on the pirates. We hit them at 1130 tomorrow. You have until 0800 to settle your differences another way. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" we chorused in unison.

Nalus threw up his hands and stalked from the infirmary. "Idiot children. Forty years I've been doing this and never in my career—" his voice was cut off as the doors closed.

The tenth round was held in my quarters. I had reach. Nyreen had flexibility.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?" Aria asked with her typical bluntness.

"Playing cat and mouse, mostly. Just trying to stay alive. If it wasn't for these tunnels…"

" _My_ tunnels," Aria emphasized sharply.

"Right," Nyreen quickly conceded.

Then Aria's face… softened. Not what I expected. "I'm sure glad I showed them to you," she said.

"Me too," Nyreen agreed. "If you hadn't, I'd be dead or locked up by now."

"Aria doesn't trust easily," Shepard said. "I guess you're a good friend."

"I don't know." Nyreen turned to Aria and raised an eyebrow. "Are we, Aria?"

Aria finally got around to doing the introductions. "Shepard, Garrus; this is Nyreen Kandros."

"We've met," Nyreen and I said in unison.

Aria's head whipped around so fast I thought she'd give herself whiplash. Her eyes narrowed for a moment, no doubt wondering what exactly our previous relationship was. Fair enough: I had some questions about how close they must have become for Aria to share her secrets with Nyreen—and I wasn't sure I liked the answers I came to.

"Nyreen's ex-turian military," I explained. "We go way back."

"I've got a lot of questions," Aria finally said. She didn't bother clarifying who she had questions for. "But they'll have to wait. Follow us. We'll get you to safety."

"Ready to put that gun to good use?" Shepard asked.

"You have no idea how ready," Nyreen replied fervently.

Now four, we headed through the tunnels in a loose diamond formation: Shepard scouted ahead, I brought up the rear. That left the women in the middle, where they quickly began talking. Not about idle gossip, of course: both of them were far too serious for that. "So why are you back, Aria?" Nyreen began.

"To reclaim what's mine."

"Left something behind, I take it?"

"Not something," Aria corrected. "Everything."

Somehow, I had the feeling Nyreen wasn't simply making idle conversation. I wondered if Shepard felt the same way, then realized he was probably too busy looking for loot to pay attention.

After he swiped everything that wasn't nailed down, he bypassed a locked door. As we moved on, Bray contacted us. _"Aria, you were right! We're under attack!"_

Terrific.

"What's the fleet's status?" Aria inquired.

 _"Still landing inside the bunker!"_

"Keep the enemy out!" she ordered. "Lock it down! Now!"

 _"Got it. Hey you: lower blast doors! Lower the blast doors!"_

"Sounds like we'd better double-time it," Shepard observed when Aria got off the comm. "Which way?"

"Straight through those doors 'till we hit the waste pipeline. Go right until you see a small alcove. There should be a ladder heading up. From there, it's just a short trip to the bunker."

Aria's instructions were perfect. We found the pipe. We found the alcove. We found the ladder. We found the bunker. And yet Aria was frowning.

Probably because Cerberus was in the midst of a full-fledged assault on the bunker. I couldn't tell how many troops they had, but I could see the big-ass Atlas mech. "Bray," Aria snapped, "you do know Cerberus is outside, right?"

" _Yeah. We retracted the bridge. They can't get in. Yet."_

"Why aren't the cannons online?"

" _Something's jamming them. Trying to identify."_

Shepard started sending instructions on his HUD. Nyreen stared at him blankly until I realized he hadn't brought her into the loop. "We're using channel 38," I whispered to her. Nodding her thanks, she made the necessary adjustments.

Meanwhile, Aria was bringing Bray up to speed on Shepard's plan: "We'll flank Cerberus, get them off your backs until you fix the cannons."

" _Got it."_

Aria got off the comm and turned to Shepard. "Activate that control panel. It'll retract the wall over here and give us access to the main thoroughfare so we can hit them from behind."

"Control panel?" Shepard frowned. "You mean that one?"

"Yes."

"The one behind the plasma conduit? The ruptured plasma conduit? That's on fire?"

"That's the one."

The look of resignation on Shepard's face was all too familiar. "Of course it is," he groaned.

* * *

I guess it's ironic that the self-professed pyromaniac was a bit leery of fire. Nonetheless, Shepard was up to the task, braving the flames to access the control panel. Sure enough, the section of wall Aria indicated slid up into the roof. Yet another one of the many secrets of Omega, which I mentally filed away. You never know when this kind of thing would come in handy again.

"Everyone find cover," Shepard ordered, "but hold your fire. I'm going to scout ahead first."

For once, Shepard didn't waste time gathering loot. We had just assumed firing positions when he reported in. "Okay, here's the plan: ignore the Atlas for now. Focus on their officers—Centurions and the like. I'll look for any support units."

Smart. The Atlas was the obvious target, but part of its threat was the dilemma it offered to opposing forces: do they target the Atlas and let the other Cerberus troops overwhelm them or focus on the Cerberus troops and let the Atlas pound them to pieces? But the real, hidden danger was the officer corps that provided leadership and the support troops that could amplify the overall threat by several orders of magnitude. Focusing on them could potentially cripple the Cerberus forces.

Shepard's first shot at one of the souped-up mechs. Nyreen took it out, he engaged his cloak. After a few seconds, a shield pylon went up in flames. Meanwhile, I was busy frying a Centurion's shields. Before I could follow up, Shepard decloaked and finished him off.

"We're being flanked," someone shouted. In the heat and confusion of battle, it had taken this long for them to realize that a new player was in town.

Aria stood up in full view of the Cerberus troops before ripping a mech to shreds with her biotics. "Omega's mine!" she snarled.

Either they were intimidated or they needed to create some cover, because one of the Centurions responded by dropping a smoke grenade. While they were busy assuming that they were safe and invisible, Shepard and I amused ourselves by taking headshots at various mechs and Centurions.

"Don't let them get to the bunker!" one of the troops cried out, seconds before he was cut down by Nyreen. The mech standing next to him had just enough time to raise its weapon before Shepard pummelled it with a sniper round and a fireball. Aria had the pleasure of tearing it apart with a point-blank shot.

We had a brief lull as the Cerberus forces reorganized themselves. Coincidentally, that was when Bray made contact again. _"Aria; someone's hacking the cannons, keeping them offline."_

"Where?" Shepard asked.

" _Unknown. Transmission's weak. Hacker isn't in here, so he must be nearby."_

"We'll find him," Aria replied.

"Garrus, Nyreen: sweep the right. Aria and I will take the left. If you find him—"

"Or her," Nyreen interrupted pointedly.

"—hold your fire," Shepard said gamely, without missing a beat. "Let the rest of us know so we can set up an ambush. Fan out, people. Let's find the hacker before Cerberus goes on the offensive."

I glanced at Nyreen, flicked a talon at her and gestured to the right. She nodded, recognizing and agreeing with my suggestion that she take point while I back her up. Made sense, after all. She had been a scout, back in the day, while snipers were generally more effective if they had some room to deploy their weapons.

It didn't take long before we spotted the hacker. A Cerberus combat engineer, which meant—sorry, Nyreen—he was probably male. The Illusive Man generally isn't very fussy about gender equity in his military forces. "Got him," I whispered over the comm. "Sending his location now."

" _One moment,"_ Shepard replied. He immediately followed up with _"Crap. Don't have a line of sight."_

" _Neither do I,"_ Aria said. _"I'll move around—"_

"Wait," Nyreen butted in. "Garrus and I will flush him out. Just be ready to take him down when we do."

"Got it."

"Fine."

Nyreen looked at me and tilted her head. I nodded silently. Turning back, she aimed her weapon at the engineer with one hand. Lifting the other, she raised three talons before counting down. On 'one,' she dropped her hand and gripped her pistol. You can't fire a pistol one-handed with any kind of accuracy, no matter what the vids say. Then we opened up on the hapless engineer.

Several bullets hit his shields before he realized what happened. Jumping up, he tried to scuttle back, snapping off several shots in the process. I ducked down to avoid the ricochets, but not before launching an EMP. I saw his shields blink out seconds before he got hit with Shepard's second-favourite weapon.

The fiery explosion was still subsiding when Bray got on the comm. _"Whatever you did, it worked. Cannons re-initializing."_

We took out a couple Centurions and several troopers before Aria started getting impatient. "Bray: status."

" _Aria, the cannons still have to be armed manually."_

Of course they did.

"I'm on it," Shepard called out. He paused before belatedly asking "Where are they?"

"Couple metres to the left of the Atlas," Aria growled.

"Oh. Okay. I'm on it: _after_ we take out the Atlas."

"Just like that," Nyreen snorted. "Take out the Atlas."

"We've done it before," I reassured her. "First step is taking out the shields. Switch to your assault rifle." I took out my particle rifle and flicked off the safeties before raising my arm and launched another EMP. It didn't seem to make much of a dent, at least compared to Aria's biotics and the resulting explosion. While Nyreen, Aria and I opened up with our rapid-fire weapons, Shepard drained the Atlas's shields some more—a little trick he picked up from Tali.

Then he switched to his sniper rifle. "Assault troopers trying to sneak up on us while we're distracted," he reported. "Keep targeting the Atlas. I'll let you know if I need help."

The fact that we were currently tied for kills and this would let him take the lead was surely a coincidence. Nevertheless, I had my orders. Besides, we were bound to have more fights before this was over. Plenty of time to retake the lead, as long as I upped my game.

Shepard only had to deal with three more troopers before focusing on the Atlas again. By that point, we'd finally whittled down its shields. "We're halfway there," Nyreen warned, "but that armour's tough."

"Just follow my lead," Shepard barked. "Nyreen, hit the Atlas with your biotics. Garrus follows with a concussive round. Then Aria with biotics and myself with plasma. Rinse and repeat."

"My plasma generator would be more effective against the Atlas than my biotics," Nyreen said.

There was a slight pause. "You can set things on fire too?" he asked.

"Yep."

No doubt Shepard had to adjust to the idea that someone else could be a pyromaniac too. To his credit, he didn't need much time at all. "Light it up then, whenever you're ready!"

We were about halfway through the sequence Shepard had set up when Bray butted in. _"Cannons still have to be manually armed!"_

"We're a little busy here," I growled.

Aria was just getting busy when I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. Cerberus was trying to be sneaky again. Well, not on my watch. I quickly took out the pair of assault troopers flanking us before helping Nyreen finish off a Centurion.

By that point, Shepard had set the Atlas on fire. Unfortunately, it was still moving. "Nyreen, you're up again," I shouted.

"Right!" A stream of plasma gushed out from her omni-tool. I loaded another concussive round, raised my sniper rifle, aimed and fired. My shot penetrated the Atlas's armoured canopy, coming to a stop somewhere in the head of the pilot. You could say it was a perfect headshot inside a perfect headshot. Plus, I was one kill away from tying Shepard, who was currently in the lead with 22 kills.

Not that it's a contest. But it totally is.

Nyreen dropped two more troopers—bringing her to six kills. That put her in fourth place behind Aria, who had twice as many kills so far—as Shepard bolted for the cannon controls.

" _Cannons still have to—"_

"—be manually armed," Shepard finished. "I know, I know. Wait a second, will you?" His charge suddenly turned into a dive for cover as a Centurion opened fire. I was about to fry his shields when Nyreen raised her arm and launched an EMP. Recovering, I quickly fired a concussive round, loaded a fresh thermal clip and finished him off before turning to her. "You've got EMP capability too? What else can you do?"

"So much, Garrus," she said sweetly. "So very, _very_ much."

"Hey!" Shepard waved a hand to get our attention. "Cannons are coming on-line. And Bray's extending the bridge. What say we get inside? Because we've got trouble coming our way."

"Really?" I asked.

Shepard's face dropped and he suddenly raised his sniper rifle. "Really."

Aria, Nyreen and I looked behind us. The flashes of white told us that the next wave of Cerberus reinforcements were on the way.

As we broke into a run, a door slid open. Bray led a half-dozen troops out to lay down cover fire as we darted over the bridge. "Cannons engaged," he yelled. "Head to the blast doors!"

To my surprise, Aria slowed down. "What're you doing?" Shepard asked.

"I want to see the looks on their faces," she grinned.

We stared at her in disbelief before a barrage of bullets hit our shields. Ducking for cover, we saw the Cerberus reinforcements swarm in. Troopers and mechs began filling the thoroughfare as several more dropped down from the upper levels. We all began firing back, each of us racking up two or three apiece, but they just kept coming.

"Now?" Bray practically begged.

"Now," Aria nodded.

With a series of mechanical whines, metal boxes rose from the floor. One by one, they unfolded into stubby turrets, the barrels of their autocannons extending outwards. There was a noticeable, almost pregnant pause.

The first couple Cerberus troops made it over the bridge.

A sharp noise filled the air as the autocannons began spinning.

And then they went to work.

Round after high-yield round spat out in dull, flat bursts. I watched the Centurion in front of me as he took one, two, three hits. The first blew out his shields in a blaze of sparks. The second punched a hole right through his midsection. And then, as his guts began spilling out, the third round took his head clean off and continued into the trooper behind him.

The autocannons tore through the Cerberus forces. It didn't matter what kind of weapons they had or what kind of protection they carried. The guns were indiscriminate. I saw Cerberus soldiers being eviscerated. I saw them being dismembered before my eyes. I saw them being decapitated, heads being torn off in spurts of blood and gore. Within seconds, I heard screams of pain. Cries of agony. Shrieks of panic as the realization of their doom penetrated even the most brainwashed goon. This wasn't a firefight. It was slaughter.

And I loved it.

I watched the abattoir unfold around me, soaked in the bloody symphony of cries and screams and, spirits help me, I loved it.

Shaking my head, I took a deep breath—and almost choked on the coppery tang of blood in the air. I stood there, a silent witness to a ruthless, relentless massacre of the enemy. In desperation, one of the Cerberus soldiers engaged his boot thrusters to fly away. He made it ten metres before a perfectly aimed shot blew him out of the air. His remains plopped to the ground next to a Cerberus soldier crawling to safety, not realizing that he was leaving a bloody trail—and his legs—behind him. Grimly, I lifted my sniper rifle and put the poor soul out of his misery.

"Nice guns," Nyreen complimented Aria.

"They'll keep the general's forces at bay for a while," Aria replied in satisfaction. I wasn't sure if the light in her eyes was a reflection of the bloodbath unfolding around us or an unholy gleam of personal joy. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer. Because I was pretty sure I had the same light in my eyes too.

"All right, then," Shepard said. "Let's get inside."

"Bunker teams: retract the bridge and lower the blast door," Aria ordered. "We're coming in."

She was the last to retreat. I heard the autocannons fall silent behind us, their bloody work complete. For now.

* * *

We had made it to the bunker, but we hadn't made it unscathed. I watch Bray lower another asari to the ground, ignoring her wince of pain. A salarian ran a medical scan over another batarian before shaking his head. Aria stepped over the now-deceased body without a second look. "We're in!" she called out. "Lock it down."

An asari ran past her to the blast doors. With a gesture, biotic energy burst into life, crackling around her frame before rippling outward to encompass the entire blast door. Another asari joined her and applied her own biotics, reinforcing the protection around us.

Aria seemed satisfied that their efforts would hold. Some, however, didn't share her feelings. "Aria, I know this place is built like a fortress," Nyreen said, "but is it safe now that the general's clued in?"

"Yeah," Shepard agreed, "I feel like a sitting duck here."

"I have no intention of sitting around, and you should both know I assume nothing. And on that front…"

Aria took a step towards Nyreen. Her eyes narrowed. "Nyreen, you left Omega fairly angry with me. I wasn't aware you'd returned. Explain yourself."

"The truth is I never left. In fact, I went to great lengths to keep myself hidden from you."

A whistle slipped out despite my best intentions. I couldn't help it: evading Aria and her entire network was quite a feat.

"I'm not easily duped," Aria admitted, echoing my admiration. "Well done. But why?"

"I just…" Nyreen began before trailing off. "I couldn't leave." She looked at all the wounded and shook her head. "Considering all this, I wish I had."

"Well," Aria said softly, "you always said I'd be the death of you."

With an effort, I ignored the shiver that ran down my spine. "Nyreen has military training," I said. "And clearly she knows the terrain as well as any of us."

"We can put her to good use," Shepard chimed in.

Aria favoured me with a slow, mocking smile. "You're so quick to trust, Garrus. Shepard, I'm not surprised, but you…"

"She can hold her own," I reminded her.

"Perhaps," Aria replied. "It's her motivation I'm worried about. She never approved of Omega's—what did you call it? Ah, yes: 'moral bankruptcy.' What do you say, Nyreen? Are you willing to help defend this 'cesspit of moral bankruptcy' now?"

Nyreen stiffened. "You'll find me very willing to liberate the people of this station from Cerberus and their occupation."

They stared at each other. Again, I found myself wondering about the exact nature of their relationship—and wondering why it mattered so much to me.

In the end, Aria looked her up and down before offering a casual shrug. "Your combat skills seem a little rusty, but you're still a good shot. See my duty officer."

Nyreen gave a simple nod.

Aria watched her walk away. "Bray," she said quietly, "keep an eye on her."

"Will do," Bray rumbled, casually wandering off after her.

"All right, Shepard," Aria said crisply, "we need to move fast. I'm _itching_ for revenge."

Shepard crossed his arms and glared at her. "If you think I'm gonna let you carve a bloody path through this campaign—you're sadly mistaken."

"And if you think you're going to change me, well, you're welcome to try," she hissed.

"I'll do more than try, if it means stopping you from running off half-cocked without a real plan," he snapped back. "And yes, I'm talking about that first attack on Omega. We had the element of surprise—at least; we did before you blew it away with that opening salvo. We could've established a foothold without losing as many ships and soldiers. That was an unnecessary waste, Aria. We can't afford another. Not if you want to drive Cerberus off Omega. Not if you want to win."

As men and women milled about, yet another batarian handed her a datapad. She turned it on and began reading some kind of status report. "Calm down, Shepard," she said over her shoulder. "Once we're up and running, this bunker will feed us intel and provide secret access to much of the station."

She signed off on the report and handed the datapad back. Once the batarian ran off, she changed her tune. "That being said, you may have a point. You have a knack for pinpointing strengths and weaknesses—both of your allies and your enemies. I haven't made the best use of that."

I resisted the urge to clear my ears. It almost sounded like Aria was admitting she might have been… wrong.

"I'd appreciate it if you would quickly eyeball operations, see that things are setting up smoothly."

That seemed to mollify Shepard somewhat. "What will you be doing?" he asked in a calmer tone.

"Checking in on my forces," Aria replied. "I need to know how many survived the assault before I can plan the next attack."

We went around a shuttle and up a flight of stairs. Aria stopped at the top step and gestured at a holo-table to her left. "It won't take long," Aria replied. "Join me at the command console when you're ready."

* * *

 _Author's Note: I always intended for Garrus and Nyreen to have some history, ever since ME3: Omega was released. Kudos for 'tomhur18' for being the first to (publicly) guess that particular plot development._


	3. The Only Game in Town

**Chapter 3: The Only Game in Town**

One thing I've learned about Shepard over the years is that his curiosity has no respect for personal boundaries whatsoever. It doesn't matter whether he's on his ship, a random space station or some spirits-forsaken rock in the middle of nowhere. The guy will happily explore every single nook and cranny, listen in on every possible conversation and butt in whenever the opportunity presents itself. He's the guy who'll see the sign marked 'Private—Do Not Enter' and read it as 'Come on In, We Are Always Open!' I mean, EDI said the guy checked out the women's washroom once when he first stepped aboard the Normandy SR-2. Even _I_ wouldn't do that without a warrant or reasonable cause. He did it because... um... he wanted to see how it compared to all the other women's washrooms? Because you know that wasn't the first time.

Keeping that in mind, you gotta wonder why Aria would basically ask him to do what he does best—aside from steal everything that isn't welded to the floor plate or set people on fire. Oh, she said something along the line of assessing the bunker's security, but I knew how he'd interpret it. So the question is: was Aria genuinely unaware of this particular character flaw? Or did she know he'd poke his nose in everyone's business anyway and only gave the order to establish the illusion of control?

Whatever the reason, it's a minor miracle he didn't squeal before running off like a kid in a candy store—it's not a metaphor, by the way. I've seen those underage terrors hyped up on sugar and it makes facing a horde of glowing husks look like a picnic. He did hesitate before looking my way. "Split up, cover more ground and compare notes later?" he suggested.

And now he's got me doing it too. "Sure," I shrugged, giving into the inevitable. "Why not?"

I trotted up a flight of stairs and through a door, ignoring the vorcha who snarled at me. One thing was clear right off the bat—security was very tight. Every single door had at least one guard standing nearby. Not a bad idea, all things considering.

"Crap!"

My attention was drawn to a batarian mechanic tinkering with something. "One more try..." I heard him grumble, followed by "Crap!"

"What's the trouble here?" I asked.

"Power inverters are shorting out. Tried to find a workaround, but no go. They can probably be scrounged up somewhere on Omega. You think you'll be leaving this bunker any time?"

"Probably."

"If you come across a set of Kehri inverters, bring 'em back here. This is what they look like."

He transmitted a set of schematics. "I'll see what I can do," I said.

I wandered on, spotting people running about trying to bring something online or distributing needed equipment. I passed a squad leader giving instructions to his men. "Cerberus knows we're here," he was saying. "We'll be setting up combat shifts, so pay attention to the roster updates. We also lost some supplies coming in. This is me saying 'make every damn shot count.' Once we got eyes on other parts of the station, some of you will be sent to scout for supplies. Stay smart and alert, and we'll have Omega back in no time."

Right. If only it was that easy.

As I turned around, my gaze fell upon Nyreen. She was sitting on a crate, fiddling with her assault rifle. After a moment of hesitation, I joined her. "Credit for your thoughts?" I asked.

"Just marveling at how similar this is to troop deployments in the Hierarchy," Nyreen replied, gesturing around her.

She had a point. I've seen a lot of things in my checkered past, but few of them were quite as impressive as a turian regiment preparing to head out. Imagine a thousand soldiers moving around: packing gear and supplies, moving them, losing them, finding them again. Squads, platoons and companies being mustered to a staging area, only to be relocated at the last minute. Everyone and everything getting in each other's way, but still managing to complete preparations with military efficiency.

Aria's bunker was much the same. Oh, there was a greater mix of troops-more asari, batarians, salarians and humans than turians. And the people were definitely more rag-tag, disheveled and disreputable. But the energy was the same.

It occurred to me that I hadn't said a word for at least a couple minutes. And while there were such things as a comfortable silence, this wasn't one of them. Nyreen must have come to the same conclusion. "So… Shepard," she said. "Would that be Commander Shepard? Alliance military, first human Spectre, _that_ Shepard?"

"Yep."

"The one who was supposedly dead for a couple years?"

"He got better. You have no idea how sick and tired he is of fielding questions like that."

"I can imagine." She glanced furtively back and forth before leaning towards me and lowering her voice. "Look, Garrus. Supposedly I'm just adjusting the settings on the new assault rifle I was issued."

"But..." I prompted.

" _But_ I need to get out of here. I have responsibilities."

"To who?"

"I can't say."

"Can't or won't?"

She opened her mouth. Closed it. "Both," she finally admitted.

I took a deep breath. "Is it because of how things ended between us?"

To her credit, Nyreen gave my question some serious consideration. "Not really. It's… how do humans phrase it? Ah: water under the bridge. All I can tell you is that I have people who are depending on me. People I have to help and protect. I can't do that while I'm locked up in this bunker."

That sounded like Nyreen. Always worrying about others and trying to help them. Even her reticence in explaining her motivations came from a desire to protect me and Shepard. We couldn't be forced to tell anyone what she was up to if we didn't know in the first place, now could we? "What do you need?" I sighed.

"Distract Bray. He's trying to be subtle, but I know when I'm being followed."

I looked up and spotted him casually talking to an asari. "Aria may have told him to keep an eye on you," I confided.

"Figures. She might trust me to a point, but this is Aria we're talking about."

"True enough. Okay. Give me a minute to think of something."

I walked away, eyes darting left and right for inspiration. For once, the spirits were on my side. "Hey. Bray! You got a sec?"

"Not really," he growled.

"Well, I need to talk to you. About those supplies that are being off-loaded."

"What about them?"

"You know those portable heating units we brought over? The ones banned in Citadel space for spontaneous high-energy emissions but always pop up on the black market?"

" _Yeah_?"

"Is it really a good idea to be storing them next to the heavy weapon power cells?"

His eyes—all four of them—widened. "Oh shit. Gimme a hand, will you?"

We spent the next few minutes moving the heating units to a safer location before I resumed my wanderings. I resisted the urge to check my talons and see if they were glowing.

Finally, I finally met up with Shepard. "Well?" he asked.

"Security seems tight," I replied. "Aria's people have guards on every door and are organizing shifts for the squads. Oh, there's a mechanic who'd like us to keep an eye out for power inverters."

"Yeah, I bumped into him," he nodded. "Batarian, right? About this high? Keeps muttering up about giving up and new power inverters are the only answer?"

"Yeah, that's the one. What about you?"

"My security assessment's the same."

"And?"

"And I overheard an asari talking to someone named Ruck, who got lost somewhere on the station. And I overheard another asari—two of them, actually—who were talking about the lack of medical supplies. And one of Aria's hackers—"

"Another asari?"

"Human, actually. She wants to gain more control over Omega's operating systems and was hoping I could help her out. Gave me an input code to punch into any terminal I could find. Like I have nothing better to do than poke at random consoles."

"Well you do poke at random consoles. Actually, every console. You also pick up every datapad within line of sight."

"Who's side are you on, anyway?"

"I'm just saying..."

"Why don't we see how Aria's doing?"

"You can run away, but it's still true."

"I can't hear you..."

* * *

We found Aria in her element: giving orders to her minions. "Ahz, how are we looking?"

"All systems operational," one of the salarian minions chirped. "Full Omega schematics coming online now."

"Let's take a look."

Shepard and I joined Aria at the holo-table, where a three-dimensional holographic schematic of Omega had just appeared. The overall image was in blue, but there were a lot of thick red lines circling the station at various points.

"I see," Aria said. "Shepard, Garrus: those force fields we saw earlier? The general has them set up everywhere."

"So he _is_ controlling access across the station," Shepard concluded.

"What are those dark areas?" I asked, pointing to one such spot near the bottom.

"Many sections of Omega are powered down," Ahz replied. "I'm betting power that would normally be routed to those areas is being siphoned to run those force fields."

"Makes sense," I nodded. "We all saw how much juice was running through them."

"Find the source," Aria ordered. "Priority one."

"And we'll need a full tactical assessment of all Cerberus positions," Shepard added. "Numbers, composition, ways of approach."

"I'll get on it," Ahz said.

Aria waited for Ahz to run away before she got down to business. "We have work to do. Our losses were significant. We can't field an army large enough to face down Cerberus."

Gee, that's too bad. If only someone had thought of that earlier so we could avoid this scenario. Oh wait— _WE DID!_ I don't want to say I told you so. That's Shepard's prerogative.

Of course, he didn't say it either. Instead he simply said "Then we need to find allies."

"Finding allies," I murmured, shooting him a sly look. "Talking to them, finding common ground, persuading them to help. Should be a piece of cake, Shepard. You've only done this, what, a hundred times now?"

"Story of my life," he muttered back.

An asari handed Aria a datapad. She gave it a glance, nodded and handed it back. "We've confirmed there is a merc gang still active on Omega. The Talons are resisting the occupation." She pulled up a live vid-feed showing a fight going on between a couple Talons and a Cerberus squad.

"You don't sound thrilled with the prospect of hiring them," I observed.

"They're not my first choice," she grudgingly admitted. "The Blue Suns have more experience, Eclipse has better tech and the Blood Pack are more ruthless. But none of them have a presence here anymore. If they did, I would have known by now. Like it or not, the Talons are all we've got."

Shepard squelched whatever qualms he might have had. "Then it's time to play diplomat."

"And if the current leader won't join us, the next one will," Aria added. Naturally, her backup plan was more bloody than anything Shepard had in mind.

Bray shuffled up to join us. I quickly repressed a grin. This should be good. "Um... sorry to interrupt, boss..."

"What is it?" Aria asked.

"Uh, well... it's a funny story. I turned away for a second to offload supplies. Stupid idiots tried to put the portable heaters near our heavy weapon power cells. Could've set the whole thing off. Had to do something, right? Anyway, I finally finished fixing that mess. But when I looked back..."

He trailed off as Aria stepped forward and glared at him. "You lost her," she finished.

"Well, I..."

Aria turned away in disgust. Shepard raised his hands placatingly. "We're locked down. She's got to be here somewhere."

"This bunker has secret access points to other parts of the station," Aria burst out, waving her arms in frustration. "Unfortunately, Nyreen knows about them."

Guess Shepard and I were a bit off in our security assessments. Oops.

She slammed the holo-table and took a deep breath. "Damn it, Bray," she hissed. "If I wasn't already short on manpower..."

Yeah, Aria wasn't very forgiving of people who failed her. "What's done is done," I said, steering the conversation away from Nyreen before people started wondering if she had any help in giving Bray the slip. "We need to focus on getting the Talons on board."

I didn't count on Shepard's curiosity, though. With an effort, I kept a straight face as he went right back to a certain female turian. "It seems like there's more to Nyreen than meets the eye."

"You mean her disappearing act?" Aria dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "Honestly, I'm not concerned. If it was anyone else, I'd want blood. But Nyreen's a variable I can control. She believes in a code of ethics. She _oozes_ virtue."

Sounds like Nyreen, all right.

"You two must have made an interesting pair," Shepard smiled.

"Opposites attract, right?" For a brief moment, she smiled back. "Our connection was powerful, but doomed. Nyreen demonstrated zero flexibility. She couldn't put up with the... challenges of my life."

Sadly, I could see that. Nyreen's flexibility only went as far as her physical attributes. She was an idealist to the core, with an optimism that was frequently at odds with reality.

Her momentary glimpse of happiness vanished, replaced by her usual cool mask of disdain. "That's all you're getting out of me on the subject, Shepard. Anything else?"

She _really_ didn't know him all that well if she thought the answer was no. "Tell me about this merc gang we're looking to enlist."

"They're drug runners and cutthroats, but they're highly organized. That sets them apart. It's one of the reasons that they lasted as an independent organization, rather than getting absorbed into another group like the Blue Suns. They appear more civilized than, say, the Blood Pack, but at their heart, they're just as treacherous and dishonourable. We'll have to appeal to their lust and greed to bring them onboard and keep them in line."

"What's your history with this gang?"

"Some mutually beneficial dealings and some occasional violence. Honestly, the Talons weren't even a blip on our radar until the plague in 2185."

I remembered that one. Deliberately engineered by the Collectors to take out non-humans. Shepard had helped spread a cure during his mission to recruit the late Mordin Solus, but not before it dealt a serious blow to the Blue Suns by that point.

"Even then, they probably wouldn't have attracted any attention if it wasn't for your little war against the other gangs. You did so much damage that they never managed to recover. It left a vacuum."

For a moment, I thought she was talking about my short and ultimately futile crusade as Archangel. Then I saw Shepard wince and it all made sense. He had never sought to launch a crusade against the major merc groups. He never wanted to create a void in the criminal infrastructure that a new player could fill. All he wanted to do was hire a couple guys to help investigate a rash of human colony abductions in the Terminus Systems.

While he had the best of intentions, and his actions did ultimately help save the galaxy, there had clearly been some unintended consequences. "Not my intention," he bit out.

"So the Talons filled that vacuum," I said, trying to continue the conversation rather than dwell on what had happened.

"Their leader, Derius, took advantage of the situation and carved the Talons a bigger piece of the local drug trade," Aria confirmed.

"Is that what led to that incident you mentioned earlier?" I asked. "Where the Talons tried to avoid paying you your cut?"

"Derius is greedy. Always has been. I can allow that to a point, but he needed to learn his place."

"So we find Derius and hope his greed doesn't get the best of him," Shepard summarized. "Last thing we want is to form an alliance with someone who'll sell us out at a moment's notice. But let's say he's agreeable and we manage to recruit the Talons. How do we reach the general?"

"I'm working on it," she sighed. "His command centre's set up in Afterlife—no doubt a deliberate move to piss me off."

No doubt. Mind you, the club did have all the equipment and power needed to run Omega, so there was a certain practical aspect to the arrangement as well.

"Don't let it get to you," Shepard warned. "He wants you off balance."

"Anger helps me focus," Aria said.

"It also helps you make mistakes."

"Noted. Regarding how to reach the general: those strange force fields are part of the problem. They're blocking access to much of the station—including Afterlife. So after we complete our current objective, I'll be looking for a way to get around them."

"Tell me about Petrovsky," Shepard prompted.

"He presumes to sit on my throne. That's all that matters."

"I get that you hate him, Aria, but I need to know who we're up against."

"All right, I'll admit he's not like other Cerberus operatives I've encountered. He's smart, thinks outside the box, very hard to predict. He's like his boss: no matter who suffers, and no matter the cost, he stops at nothing. To defeat him, we have to be prepared to do the same. Is the cross-examination over? Because time is of the essence."

"Then let's get going," Shepard agreed amiably.

"Good. I'll meet you at the exit by the armoury."

* * *

"Got a question."

Aria, Shepard and I had just left the bunker. We'd made our way through various dark and dank tunnels and were about halfway up a very long ladder. Good thing none of us were acrophobic.

I guess even Aria had to acknowledge the minor miracle of Shepard lasting this long without his curiosity bubbling to the forefront. "What now?" she sighed.

"The Talons: are we enlisting them because they're good or because we need numbers?"

"They're cannon fodder," she replied after a moment. "We're using them because they're the only game in town."

"You gonna let them know that?"

If I could hear the disapproval in his voice, Aria definitely could too. "Relax, Shepard," she said. "This is how it works on Omega. Just let me do the talking and—"

" _Aria! Commander! Do you read me?"_

"What is it, Ahz?" Aria asked.

" _Cerberus forces are scrambling. Looks like an attack on the Talons."_

Overhead, we saw three skycars fly by at top speed. All were sporting Cerberus colours. And their direction did lead straight towards Talon territory.

" _Judging from comm chatter, their priority target is in the area. Could be the Talon leader."_

"Keep us apprised if anything changes. Aria out." She closed the channel, then looked over her shoulder down at the two of us. "Looks like we fight our way through Cerberus to get to them," Aria said.

"Let's move," Shepard called back.

We hurried up the rest of the ladder. Once we reached the platform at the top, we only paused long enough to arm ourselves before heading through the door into a dimly lit hallway. We had only taken a few steps when Ahz contacted us with an update. _"Confirming Cerberus activity in your area. Let's see if I can hack their comm system. Standby."_

While Ahz began working his magic, we continued down the corridor. We were just about to turn the corner when Shepard stopped to look at the three large crates clustered there. "Any credits?" I asked.

"Credits, no; red sand, yes. Lots of it."

"That's odd," Aria frowned. "Why would they leave crates of red sand lying around like this?"

I ran a quick scan with my omni-tool. "It's already been cut with other compounds, but it would still fetch a hefty price on the street. Especially with this amount: there must be a couple kilos in each crate alone."

"Maybe they had something more important going on?" Shepard suggested.

Aria shook her head. "Not Derius. Profit is the only thing that matters to him. Anything else can burn."

We entered a gangway running around some storage tanks and went up another ladder. The room it led to had only one way out. Aria went to check it out. "Over here," Aria we heard her say.

Shepard being Shepard, he had to pick up the datapad lying on the floor, check it out, and transfer the credits he found to one of his accounts before joining her.

"What did you find?" he asked.

"One of these air shafts should lead us to Talon territory," she said, pointing to the aforementioned shafts.

"Then let's go," I said.

"Wait a sec." Shepard squeezed by us to a pair of terminals. "One of Aria's hackers wanted me to help her access various terminals around the station." He quickly entered the code he was given on one such console. "And I wanna see what's over there."

The latter was whatever was accessible via a pneumatic lift. One that didn't go anywhere until Shepard blew up some crates that were jamming it. Then he had to go down a ladder and activate another control. After all that, the only thing he got was a weapon mod. Naturally, he considered that a win.

Once he was done, Aria led us down the left air shaft. Did she know for a fact that that was the shaft to pick, or had she randomly selected one?

Thankfully I didn't have to ponder that mystery for too long. _"I've hacked into the Cerberus comms,"_ Ahz reported. _"Patching you in now."_

 _"Engaging hostiles!"_ a guttural, almost robotic voice announced.

 _"Get more backup over here!"_ another voice, more urgent but still guttural, yelled.

While listening, Shepard still found the time to pick up some more credits. It wasn't all looting, though: he was, in fact, looking for a way out of this shaft. Finding an air seal, he slapped the controls. Nothing happened.

"It's not working," I said after he hit it again—with similar results.

He rolled his eyes. "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock." Reaching to his comm, he got in touch with Ahz. "Power's offline. Any ideas?"

"There should be a control switch for the generator nearby."

We had just started our search when Shepard bent over. "Found it?" I asked.

"No." He stood up and handed over a datapad. "Read this."

I took the datapad and skimmed the report that was being displayed:

 _Mission report: we're almost done scouting this location. The surveillance drones indicate the detention centre is on par with the last one we hit, but something feels off with the patrol patterns that the display table is spitting out. I'd recommend another observation run before we try to extract the civilians."_

— _H_

"That doesn't sound like Cerberus," I frowned. "Why would they want to extract the civvies when they went to all that trouble locking them down in the first place?"

"It doesn't sound like the Talons either," Aria said, a similar look of puzzlement on her face. "I mean, hostage rescue? Really? No one could afford the fees that would make it remotely profitable."

"Maybe there's another player that we don't know about," Shepard suggested.

We all looked at each other for a moment. "Well, there's only one way to find out," I finally said.

In the end, it was Shepard who found the generator—and the switch that brought it online. Off in the distance, we could see an indicator light for the air seal turn on.

The computer station that was much, much closer also powered up. Of course, Shepard had to check out the computer. Mind you, I probably would have done the same: the screen had a very intriguing layout of the station on the display. "Looks like they were using this to observe the detainment centres," Shepard decided after a bit of fiddling.

"I'll see if Ahz can do the same," Aria said. "This could come in handy."

Without any further distractions, we headed to the air seal. This time, it obligingly slid up to allow us passage. We entered a short tunnel, walking forward a few metres before turning to the left. The tunnel came to an abrupt halt, offering an impressive view of Omega's skyline. Aria pointed to one of the towers. "That tower is the Talon outpost we're heading for."

If there was any doubt, it was dispelled by all the gunfire flying through the air. Shuttles and gunships were in the midst of a fierce dogfight. As we watched, one of the Cerberus shuttles took a direct hit. Smoke billowing from its engines, it dropped like a rock, exploding as it crashed into one of the other towers. "Looks like the Talons are giving as good as they get," Shepard observed.

There was a ladder built into the shaft. Peering down, I saw it led to a lower level that wrapped around the complex. One end was cut off by debris, but the other sported a large, broad stairway that headed down. Taking the lead, Shepard slid down the ladder and immediately proceeded to investigate the debris. By the time Aria and Garrus joined me; he had picked out some salvage and was ready to move on.

" _This is Ahz. Cerberus communications indicate that the high priority target is nearby. Their forces will be directly on your path to the Talon outpost."_

Now it was a _high_ priority target. Next thing you know, he'll add 'super duper' to the list. Shepard probably felt the same, but all he said was a simple "Understood."

The way I saw it, this was a good news, bad news situation. Bad news: we'd have a lot of hostiles to fight through. Good news: we might be able to get the drop on Cerberus. At the very least, they would have to split their forces and attention to deal with two separate groups.

We continued to follow the stairway, and through a few doors, as we descended through the next couple levels.

"Search the area!"

Instinctively, I slowed down. We'd reached the bottom of the stairs, which had taken us into a large room. Crates were stacked in the usual contradiction of haphazard order. On the far side of the room, I saw another door. Shepard quickly signalled for us to move up and find cover.

"Intruders detected!"

Yeah, we'd been made. Mind you, the way my EMP and Shepard's sniper round took out one of Cerberus's combat engineers might've had something to do with that.

A Centurion moved towards us. Whether he wanted to find cover or get up close and personal, I wasn't sure. I fired off a snapshot that glanced off his shields. Shepard and Aria hit him with a fireball and a biotic blast, respectively. The onslaught took him down, but not before he dropped a smoke grenade.

I could see Shepard swaying back and forth. Either he was drunk, concussed or he was trying to line up a target. He finally pulled the trigger, but I could tell that he wasn't satisfied with the shot. Then his eyes widened. "Grenade!" he yelled.

Even as we dove out of the way, I was planning my next move. Cerberus was bound to seize the opportunity to press the attack. If they did, there were only two options: advance forward or skirt the sides and flank us. I kept an eye on the right side of the room, just in case they tried to be sneaky.

In the end, they did neither. Turned out they were hoping the grenade would finish us off. If so, they were sadly mistaken. Not that they had a chance to feel any regrets: we immediately responded with a fireball, a grenade and a whole lot of gunfire. By the time the dust cleared, each of us had added another kill to our tally.

The hostile I'd taken out—a combat engineer—was still collapsing when the door I saw earlier slid open to reveal several more Cerberus goons. Shepard immediately switched to his submachine gun and opened up—more to put them off guard than for any attempt at accuracy.

"Those aren't Talons," the lead goon, a Centurion, realized before Shepard fried his shields.

"No shit," an impudent trooper replied before Aria wrapped a biotic whip around his neck, dragged him towards her and unloaded half a clip into him.

While I finished off the Centurion with a sniper round to the head, another Centurion was frantically backpedalling. Shepard fired a couple shots to take out his shields before suddenly bolting from cover and charging him. The Centurion frantically opened fire to no avail—Shepard closed the distance, generated an omni-blade and plunged the glowing blade right into his heart.

"Garrus," he called out, motioning me over. "Watch the door while we clear the room."

While I stood guard, Aria and Shepard searched the room. Both of them stocked up on thermal clips, but I knew someone had, shall we say, additional motives.

"Aria, you'll be pleased to know that your hacker extended her control over station systems by 77 percent," Shepard told her when we reconvened.

"Good," she nodded.

"Did you find any loot as well?" I asked innocently.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

I chose not to answer that.

Shepard took the lead again, probably due to the med-station hanging outside than for any other reason. We went around the corner and ran into a locked door. As Shepard began a bypass, I leaned against the door and listened. _"We've got 'em!"_ I heard a harsh voice growled out. _"Talon retreat has been blocked. Keep up the pressure, people!"_

As the door opened, Shepard activated his cloak. There were two soldiers in the room: an assault trooper and a combat engineer. The trooper's head suddenly exploded like a ripe melon, courtesy of Shepard and his sniper rifle. Being the gentleman that I am, I let Aria deal with the engineer after I fried his shields.

" _We can't keep this up much longer!"_ we heard someone yell. Probably a Talon, judging by the lack of mechanical rasp in his voice.

" _I know,"_ another probable Talon responded. _"Someone get those doors open!"_

" _We've got you rats cornered,"_ a third voice crowed. Definitely Cerberus, judging by the inhuman tone. _"No way out this time!"_

" _You say that every time, human,"_ the second voice retorted. _"And yet, here we are, still alive and shooting back!"_

Clearly, the Talons were in trouble. And since no one new had dropped by to shoot at us, I figured it was time to move out. I took a few steps forward. Nothing. Spotting a room to my right, I crept to the side. Aria waited until Shepard darted to the other side before charging into the room.

Desks, computers and padded chairs ran around the walls—floor-to-ceiling windows, really—leaving a clear space in the middle that was only slightly covered with strewn papers and pads. Shepard moved to one of the computers, which was displaying a rather fierce firefight on the monitors. "Looks like Cerberus locked that area down," he told us. "Let's see if we can change that."

Aria moved back outside while Shepard began to hack the controls. It took less than ten seconds. A loud blare rang through the air. _"The doors are open!"_ we heard the first voice cry out. _"Retreat! Retreat!"_

A sudden burst of gunfire told us that some of the action had come to us. Leaving the office, we spotted a pair of those souped-up mechs storming in. Choosing the left mech, I sent it staggering back with a perfect shot to the head. While it was disabled, Shepard sent a fireball at the right mech. "Aria, biotics on my mark!" he barked. Aria obeyed without hesitation. The resulting conflagration blew both mechs to smithereens.

 _"They're escaping towards the warehouse!"_ we heard a Cerberus goon yell. _"Get some shuttles there now!"_

 _"Commander,"_ Ahz reported, _"the Talons are on the move, and Cerberus is not happy."_

My heart bleeds. I didn't say that, of course, as I was too busy sniping a Guardian through his shield slit. Yes, me. You thought I would let Shepard have all the fun? Besides, he was having enough entertainment using up the rest of his thermal clip on another one of those mechs.

There was one more mech blocking our path, but Aria was slowly and methodically taking it apart. The situation was under control. So much so that Shepard did some more looting.

Despite all the fun I had poking fun at Shepard's kleptomania, he never lost sight of the bigger picture. He kept an eye on any more hostiles—or anyone who needed help.

Case in point: he was the one who first discovered the wounded turian. "Over here!" he called out, gesturing to another room up ahead and on the right.

Entering the room, we skirted another holo-table and knelt by the turian. He was wearing Talon colours... and was tightly gripping his right leg. Actually, it was his knee. Someone had kneecapped him. Three guesses who it was.

Shepard quickly administered some medi-gel. After the Talon thanked him, he opened up an access port for the hacker he'd talked to earlier. Apparently, his efforts had allowed her to monitor enemy movements in 'sectors four through twelve.' Whatever that meant.

"What about him?" I asked, pointing to the Talon.

"He'd slow us down," Aria pointed out.

I had to admit, she was right. The Talon came to the same conclusion. "My buddies need your help more than I do," he agreed. "If you can pull their asses out of the fire, they'll send someone to get me. If you can't, then I'm dead meat anyway."

"Just hang in there," Shepard told him, passing a few spare thermal clips over. "Aria, Garrus: let's move."

* * *

Turned out the door at the far end of the room was actually an elevator. One that slowly took us deeper into the bowels of Omega. We spent the trip in silence, for the most part. No chit chat. No game plan. No discussion about philosophical or cultural differences. It felt like years since I'd had a good elevator chat.

"Where are we heading?" I finally asked, determined to have at least a little conversation.

"The Talons control a few of the ports here," Aria replied. "They charge exorbitant fees for ships who want to do business on Omega without going through me. Or they did before I was… ousted."

"And you were fine with that?" Shepard asked.

"At the time, it suited me to let them think they got away with it," Aria shrugged. "I've made use of them myself from time to time—through intermediaries, of course. In any case, I know every square inch of Omega. Based on the location of the Talon-controlled ports and the area Cerberus is attacking, I made an educated guess on which landing pad is under attack. That's where we're heading."

Finally, we reached our destination. The sign on the wall told us we were in one of Omega's cargo bays.

"Landing pad secure," we heard a Cerberus goon say, his guttural voice echoing down the corridor. "Clear the area!"

The first guy only had time to take one step out into the corridor. After that, his head exploded, thanks to Shepard and the sniper round that lodged itself somewhere in his brain. Two more hostiles followed—one of those fancy mechs and another trooper. It took me two shots to take out the former, while Aria used her biotics to yank the latter towards her and beat him to a bloody, lifeless pulp. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was working out some issues.

While she was wiping the blood off her face, Shepard snuck up to the door where the hostiles had come through and activated his cloak. I joined him just in time to see a mech's head shatter. As Shepard decloaked, I had just enough time to see that this was the entrance to the landing pad Aria had mentioned before lifting my sniper rifle and firing at an assault trooper. As the trooper collapsed, I raised my omni-tool and sent an EMP towards a combat engineer who was setting up a portable weapon turret. Aria rushed forwards, slid into some cover about ten metres ahead of me, and finished off the engineer. That left the turret—now merrily spitting hot lead at the three of us—and a shield generator. Between Shepard, Aria and I, we didn't have too much trouble taking them out.

And a good thing we did too: just as the shield generator went up in flames, a Cerberus shuttle flew into view. The mechs and troopers were already jumping out as the hatches swung open, a sensible move given how hot the landing zone had become. Aria and Shepard looked at each other before launching a series of attacks, alternating biotics with plasma bursts. I snapped off the occasional EMP or concussive round. We focused on the three mechs, taking them out one by one. Then I dropped an errant assault trooper trying to flank us before helping Shepard finish off a combat engineer.

"Clear," Shepard barked.

"Clear," I echoed. "We're tied at 31 kills apiece, Shepard. Just in case you were wondering." I glanced at Aria before adding "Aria has 24."

A growl that wouldn't have been amiss from a feral varren came from her throat.

"Don't let them through!" we heard a Cerberus goon yell, bringing us back to reality. Spinning around, I spotted him—yet another assault trooper—and took him out. Unfortunately, he must've called backup, because another shuttle dropped out of the sky and came to a hover. As we watched, a Centurion hopped out. I zapped his shields and took him out while he was still in free-fall. Shepard immediately deployed another fireball. Extrapolating his trajectory, I silently applauded. Shepard wasn't trying to get 'my' kill. No, he was aiming at all the hostiles who were still inside the shuttle—all bunched up together. Aria's biotics hit home right on cue. I figure the resulting explosion killed two hostiles outright and seriously wounded two more. The survivors hurled themselves from the shuttle, which promptly peeled away, puffs of fire licking away as they dropped to the ground below. Aria let them pat out the flames before shooting one of them in the face and beating the living daylights out of the other. I was starting to wonder if she'd let that one live… before she grabbed him by the neck, hauled him to the edge of the balcony and shoved him over.

Shepard leaned over and waved at him before giving in to his kleptomania. Once again, his compulsive need to search and loot actually paid off. Not only did he find spare thermal clips for us, he also found an injured Talon who needed the medi-gel he'd swiped a full thirty seconds earlier. "Where to next?" he asked.

"Down the stairs and through that door," Aria replied, pointing to the right.

" _Incoming hostiles! Seal the area!"_

Either Cerberus was being flanked by the Talons or they were trying to keep us from joining the party. Judging by the way the door suddenly locked, I'm guessing option number two.

As Shepard began to hack, I reached into one of my belt pouches, took out a small disc and attached it to the door. "Just wanna hear what's going on in there," I explained, pulling up the relevant program on my omni-tool.

"Old trick from C-Sec?" Shepard guessed as he started the bypass.

"You can take the turian out of C-Sec," I grinned. "Hang on, I think I got it."

" _Answer now!"_

" _Dream on, human!"_

" _Where is target Alpha? Answer or your friend dies!"_

" _Go ahead! Shoot!"_

" _We only need one of you alive to get answers."_

" _Not going to happen."_

"Almost done," Shepard whispered. "Get ready."

Aria and I raised our weapons just in time—and I made a mental note that Shepard needed to give a little more notice. The doors slid open and we stormed in.

There were a couple unarmed Talons, surrounded by a lot of Cerberus goons toting weapons. Three combat engineers and three troopers, to be exact. "Answer now!" one of the engineers snapped, jamming his gun into one of the Talons.

"Go to hell!"

"Last chance, Talon! Answer or…"

One of his buddies noticed us and immediately moved to cover us. The rest of them followed suit. "Back off!" the engineer warned.

"I don't think so," Shepard replied.

I quickly assessed the situation. Odds were five to three. We could take them, I figured, though some of the Talons might get hurt or killed in the crossfire. As long as no one did anything stupid—

The engineer shot the Talon in the leg.

"Hey!" I protested.

"Lower your weapons," the engineer said, "or—"

A crackle of blue was the only hint that his shields were down. The next thing we knew, a splash of red exited his mouth as a bullet went right through his skull. The engineer collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

And then Nyreen dropped to the ground.

Pivoting on one foot, she kicked one trooper in the stomach and knocked him over. Swinging back, he hit another engineer in the face with the butt of her rifle. Flipping it over so the business end was facing forward, she squeezed the trigger and double-tapped the third engineer. Then she made a circular gesture with one hand and summoned a small sphere of biotic energy, which she thrust towards the remaining two troopers. The sphere flew towards them and exploded, sending them flying into the wall.

Oh yeah: and did I mention that she'd ditched the hooded outfit for a hardsuit? One that, if you ignored the yellow and black, had the same hue of red as the Talons?

Nyreen glanced at us before turning to one of the Talons. "Take care of the wounded and scavenge what you can. I want us out of here ASAP."

The Talon gestured to the Cerberus soldiers. "Some of them are still breathing. We should finish them off."

She shook her head. "That's not how we do things," she said, helping another Talon to his feet. "Tie them up, take their weapons, but let them live."

"You heard the boss," the first Talon called out. "Move it!"

"Call me crazy," Shepard said, "but I think we found the Talon leader."

"My, my." Aria walked towards the _real_ Talon leader, her slow and methodical swagger masking the maelstrom of emotions she must have been feeling. "Nyreen, aren't you full of surprises?"

Ignoring her, Nyreen knelt down next to one of the dead Cerberus goons and began rifling through his pockets. If I didn't know better, I'd think Shepard had found his soulmate. "Aria," she replied curtly. "The deception was necessary. I needed to figure out what your plans were."

She stood up and turned around. Now that she was facing us, I could see the Talon symbol etched into the side of her chestplate. "The people on Omega depend on us. I couldn't risk compromising our operation."

"Not exactly standard procedure for a street gang," Shepard observed. "But I guess Cerberus isn't the only change around here."

"When Cerberus invaded, the Talons were a mess. Aria would know: you _met_ Derius."

The derisive snort was all the answer Aria needed to give.

"I brought… new direction."

Nyreen walked to one of the nearby consoles. "The general's been hunting us ever since," she said over her shoulder. "Right now, he's attacking one of our outposts. That's where I need to be."

While she began typing away, the first Talon she'd spoken to came back. "We're done here, boss."

"Right. Aria, Commander Shepard: whatever you're here for, the answer's no."

What am I: chopped liver?

"Kindly escort yourselves _off_ Talon territory."

Well, an armed group that acted more like a resistance movement was certainly a better potential ally than a pack of drug runners and smugglers. Shepard had clearly come to the same conclusion. "We're here to help. Why don't we talk about it after we reach your outpost?"

 _That_ got Nyreen's attention. "That's a generous offer. Aria, does the commander also speak for you?"

If looks could kill, Aria's glare would have vaporized him on the spot. She preferred forcing people to accept her deals rather than offer gestures of good faith in the hopes they would reciprocate. But in the end, her pragmatism won out. "Not the way I would have put it," she bit out, "but that's the idea."

"All right, then," Nyreen agreed. "Come with me."

* * *

Of course, Shepard couldn't help but run around the room grabbing everything that wasn't nailed down. Seeing that we wouldn't be going anywhere, Aria tried for a bit of casual conversation. "You've improved your biotics since I last saw you."

Nyreen grinned. "You noticed the biotic grenades."

"You always did like blowing things up, given half a chance."

After Shepard swiped some credits, a weapon mod and a couple more thermal clips, we headed for the door. It opened up to reveal a cargo lift, which Nyreen programmed to take us up.

"We've noticed that Cerberus has been fielding some new mechs," I said to pass the time.

"Rampart mechs," Nyreen identified. "And they're not new: not entirely. After Cerberus took over Omega, they had to figure out how to control the population. Not an easy task, you can imagine."

"Hence the force fields," Shepard said.

"The techs think they're sheets of plasma suspended in a magnetic field, but yeah, everyone just calls them 'force fields.'"

That would explain the vorcha we saw a while back.

"The force fields were intended as a short-term situation, designed to cordon off sections of the station and establish detainment areas. But as time passed, and things didn't settle down, the network of force fields expanded. At some point, the general must've realized that he'd either have to coordinate a way of shutting them down to send troops from one area to another… or he'd have to create troops that could walk through them unharmed.

"So he gathered up all the LOKI mechs that Eclipse left behind when they pulled out. Upgraded them with some kind of mini-fabrication tech, protective shielding from Omega's eezo processing plants and a whole lot of ablative armour. Then he tricked them out with infrasound and scent markers. The result: a tireless combat unit that follows orders, doesn't need to eat or sleep and can switch from control and intimidation to combat at the drop of a hat. They can channel their power systems into protective shields that protect them from long-range fire or overclock their servomotors to close in on their targets and hack them apart with omni-blades. Even when they're taken out, they pose a threat: their chassis and shotgun barrels discharge intense heat through the dispersal sinks. A lot of people got badly burned when they got too close—civvies included."

"Okay," Shepard managed. "That sounds… mildly terrifying."

"Yet another reason I'm glad I'm a sniper," I said.

"Amen."

"So are there any other horrors we need to know about?" I asked.

Nyreen might've answered had the doors not opened. "If there are, we'll find out soon enough," Aria decided, stepping out of the lift. "Come on."

It was dark. Not pitch-black dark, but dark enough for me to engage a low-light enhancement filter on my visor. Aside from a few pot-lights and a fire burning away in the distance, there wasn't much illumination in the room. And yet, I could clearly see the crates stacked up and the body in the centre of the room.

Then I took a step further and saw the force field blazing away, bright enough to light up the room. Guess it was sucking up all the power that would be normally directed to the main lighting.

Nyreen saw that, and something else: "Rampart mechs incoming!"

"Take cover," Shepard said, raising his sniper rifle.

His first shots weren't at the mechs, which was good considering they hadn't even passed through the force field yet. No, he was aiming at the shield pylons. He managed to take out one before the mechs entered the room and the gunfire started. Aria hit the first one with a biotic last to the chestplate, seconds before my concussive round hit the same spot. Nyreen set the next one on fire. Shepard was busy repositioning, so he didn't get a chance to follow up. I was happy to finish it off myself. So far, I thought, this fight wasn't going too bad.

Naturally the spirits heard me. Why else would an Atlas pick that moment to drop in?

"They left an Atlas behind to cover their retreat," Nyreen hollered.

Well, of course. If you want to be _reasonable_ and all.

"Aria, Nyreen: focus on the Rampart mechs," Shepard ordered. "Garrus, help me out with the Atlas."

We split up and followed our assigned duties. Nyreen quickly racked up a kill of her own, though Aria was right behind her. Meanwhile, I concentrated on my target. First step in tackling the Atlas was taking out its shields, so I switched to my particle rifle and prepped an EMP. I was just about to let the pulse loose when I saw Shepard dart out of cover. So did the Atlas. I held my breath as it launched a rocket from its right arm. At this range, it couldn't miss.

It didn't.

"Ow."

I breathed a sigh of relief and launched the EMP. "Shepard, watch yourself. You can always loot later."

"Actually, I was going for the missile launcher. Cerberus must've left it behind when they pulled out. I think now would be a good time for some heavy support, don't you?"

That certainly put things in a different light. "Go for it," I told him. "I'll cover you."

The second attempt was successful. Shepard got his hands on the missile launcher, charged it up and began tracking the Atlas. I heard a series of beeps, which suddenly became a continuous ringing tone as the launcher's sensors locked on the Atlas. Five micro-missiles streaked out, slamming right into the Atlas. In the blink of an eye, its shields shorted out and several armour plates cracked.

Mind you, the Atlas began regenerating its shields immediately, but the damage was done. Readying another EMP, I dropped it right on top of the Atlas. Shepard interrupted the barrage of bullets from his submachine gun to deploy a plasma blast. Then he switched weapons and ran around a stack of crates.

I saw something fly up and over the crates. A second later, a small explosion came from the Atlas's back. Must've been one of Shepard's grenades. Then I heard Shepard go to work, firing his sniper rifle as quickly as he could. Good call, given that the Atlas's shields weren't being restored. Grenade must've disabled the shield generator. Following suit, I began firing shot after shot from my sniper rifle. Between the two of us, it didn't take long before the Atlas went up in flames. Shepard scored the final shot, but that was okay: I was back in the lead.

"All units, fall back and support the main attack!" we heard a Cerberus goon yell in the distance. Guess they found out what happened to their rear guard.

"Come on!" Aria urged. "They're getting away."

Shepard didn't respond. Three guesses why.

When he was done looting and salvaging, we entered the elevator. No, not the one we'd just come from. Another one, on the far side of the room. We'd just taken one elevator, fought our way through the room it opened up on, only to clamber into another one. Omega was riddled with them, even more so than the Citadel as it didn't have pesky things like safety inspectors. That was one of the main reasons I avoided them when I was here as Archangel, the other reason being that I needed to move around without being monitored or trapped.

" _Aria, Commander Shepard; this is Ahz. I think you're gonna want to hear this."_

Great. What now?

" _Unconfirmed sighting of target Alpha!"_ we heard a Cerberus goon report.

" _Cut the power to that sector,"_ another Cerberus goon ordered _. "All units focus on the Talon outpost!"_

Then the elevator came to a lurching halt and everything went black.

* * *

Shepard likes to pretend that he doesn't know how to be a leader. That he's just making it up as he goes around and hoping he doesn't screw up too much. Then he says something like—

"Is everyone all right?"

—which proves that it's all bullshit.

"Yep," I confirmed.

"I'm fine," Nyreen chimed in.

"We need to get out of here," Aria said. "There's a latch inside a wall panel to the left of the elevator doors that'll open the emergency access in the back right corner of the roof. We can use the ladders to climb the rest of the way."

"Found it," Shepard announced. We could hear someone tapping on metal before a harsh blinding light came on, courtesy of the built-in flashlight on Shepard's submachine gun. "Panel's jammed," he said. "Gimme a second."

He needed a good five or six before he gave up, aimed his gun and fired a single shot. In hindsight, we were damn lucky the ricochet didn't hit someone. Still, it did the job. The panel swung open, Shepard engaged the emergency access and led us out of the elevator car. From there, he took us to the narrow walkway that was setup for maintenance workers, down a couple ladders and along a few more walkways and out the door.

Of course he found a datapad with access to an open credit account along the way.

We emerged in a dark corridor, with only the lights from our weapons and a few fitful bursts of sparks to show us the way. "Where to?" Shepard asked.

"Catwalk access," Aria replied. "Go forward, take the next right and through the door. It'll be sealed thanks to the power outage, so you'll have to engage the manual locks."

"I hope you're not afraid of heights," Nyreen added.

Aria was right and Nyreen had nothing to worry about. We made it onto the catwalks in short order, only pausing to deal with those manual locks and let Shepard pick up a medkit.

" _Reports coming in!"_ we heard over the comm as Shepard dropped the now-empty medkit. Ahz must've kept an open link to monitor Cerberus. " _Additional Talon forces on the catwalks!"_

" _Get our people down there! Go!"_

"Guess we'll have company soon," Shepard said. He darted forward a few metres before returning to us. "Can't get through that way. Flames are too hot."

That was the excuse he gave. The way his fingers dropped something into one of his waist pouches told a different story.

But then the Cerberus goons we'd been warned about arrived. Before they could do anything, I aimed at the lead hostile, a Centurion, and fried his shields. Aria promptly lashed out with her biotics while Shepard fired his sniper rifle at an assault trooper.

" _Target Alpha in sight!"_

"Finally, a little recognition," Aria snorted.

Seriously?

"Actually, Aria," Nyreen corrected, "I'm target Alpha." She raised her assault rifle and dropped another trooper.

Hee, hee.

"Phantoms!" Shepard yelled out suddenly.

All banter ceased as we concentrated on the latest threat. No one wanted to get chopped to bit by Cerberus ninjas stuffed with Reaper tech. And their biotic barriers would make it hard to take them down. Not that I wasn't game to try. Raising my sniper rifle, I found another Phantom and got to work. My first shot blew through her barriers. My second shot took her down. Shepard wasn't quite as lucky, as his target cart wheeled out of the way at the last moment, turning his kill shot into a shoulder wound. So Aria got the pleasure of blowing her away—with her shotgun, not, well, you know.

Realizing that things weren't going so well, another Centurion dropped a smoke grenade to cover their retreat. It was the last thing he did before Nyreen's EMP and my concussive round finished him off. Shepard took out a trooper before the smoke got too thick. Aria peered through the smoke, then hastily ducked as a bullet ricocheted off a nearby pipe.

"Sniper," Shepard told us. He paused, aimed and fired twice. "Got her."

"I see them! They're down there!" we suddenly heard.

"But we've still got some up here, soldier! Watch out!"

Nice to know the Talons were still giving it all they got. Though I wondered where Cerberus was. Those voices didn't sound like they came over Ahz's comm intercepts.

Shepard raced to the door, hit it a few times, and even tried a bypass before giving up. "The whole system's disabled," he replied. "I can't even establish a connection."

Nyreen chuckled knowingly. "Lockdown system's been compromised so many times it hardly knows up from down anymore." She lifted a hand to her ear. "Nyreen to base: need an engineer at the catwalk's entrance. Door's jammed again!"

"While we're waiting, why don't we do some more killing?" Aria suggested, aiming her shotgun behind us.

And the mystery of the Cerberus voices was solved: they were on a catwalk one level above us. One of them took the initiative to lob smoke grenades like they were on sale. I took him out without much difficulty, but the next one managed to deflect my shot with his shields. Shields that he shouldn't have had, but were provided thanks to a nearby shield pylon—one that Shepard took out.

By that point, the smoke was billowing and the troopers were dropping down to take the fight to us. However, they needed a few seconds to recover from the drop before seeking the closest piece of cover, whereas we were already entrenched and firing away. Four hostiles went down in short order, one for each of us.

So you can understand why Aria felt relaxed enough to indulge in a bit of conversation. "You're not just using the catwalks as a secret passage to the base, are you?"

"A long drop is the best way to get rid of unwanted guests around here," Nyreen confirmed.

Spotting a Centurion about to join the party, I fried his shields as he hopped over the rail, then fired as soon as he entered his scope. As his head exploded, Nyreen deployed an EMP on another Centurion. Shepard, greedy pig that he was, stole her kill. So she had to settle for one of the assault troopers who'd made it down to our level.

"Are those doors open yet?" Aria asked impatiently, leaning out of cover to fire a shot into a trooper's midsection. As he doubled over, she fired again before ducking down.

"They're working on it," Nyreen replied.

"Well it's not like we're short of entertainment around here," I observed, sniping another trooper.

Shepard and I both got another kill with our sniper rifles, while Aria and Nyreen dealt with a Centurion. Our targets were down here while theirs was up above, which is why they spotted the latest guy to crash the party. "Atlas!" Aria shouted. "Two of them!"

Nyreen had better news. "They've hacked the bridge controls!"

A loud sound of grinding motors screeched overhead as a large panel above us began to move outwards—the bridge was apparently overhead, effectively doubling as the roof. Once it was extended, no one would be able to hop down. Realizing that, we immediately redoubled our onslaught. No longer were we worried about kills. We just needed to keep them occupied and hold them off a little longer. Not that we didn't get any more kills: Aria, Nyreen and I each got another assault trooper while Shepard accounted for yet another Centurion.

And me? I got a Centurion _and_ an assault trooper who managed to squeeze through.

Behind me, I heard a chime as the door mechanism powered up. "Door's open!" Nyreen confirmed. "Let's go!"

Shepard immediately bolted in the opposite direction. Nyreen watched him go with a puzzled look on her face. "Where's he going?"

"Searching for loot," Aria and I said in unison.

"Really?" Nyreen asked, unknowingly echoing Aria.

"Really," I nodded.

Nyreen rubbed her brow. "Hurry up!" she shouted after him. "I need to get to my people!"

To his credit, Shepard came back in less than a minute. "Find anything?" I asked.

"Sniper rifle mod. Isn't it great?"

"Yes," I sighed. "Yes, it is. Can we go now?"

" _Fine_. If you _insist_."


	4. Shaky Ground

_Author's Note: I didn't have much time to write last month—hence the slight delay. Also, a reminder that once Aria's Lament has concluded, we'll be returning to The Hero Rises._

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Shaky Ground**

A chorus of greetings heralded our entrance into the Talon outpost—mostly directed at their boss, Nyreen. She greeted them in return with the easy confidence of one who knew she was in command. Passing a hastily-built set of fortifications, we turned left into a side corridor, passing a wounded krogan and the asari medic treating him, then walked into an elevator on our right.

Nyreen took the lead once the elevator doors opened, marching out into another corridor with a determined gait. "We'll be evacuating this location as soon as possible. Try not to interfere with my people's work."

One of the Talons met us at the intersection, datapad in hand. He was clearly wondering why Aria was here, judging by the look he gave her, but was too professional or focused to voice his concerns out loud. "Intel just reported in," he said, choosing instead to get down to business. "The group of civilians we managed to evac arrived safely at the other outpost."

"Got it," Nyreen nodded, taking the datapad and heading straight for a large door. The Talon standing guard palmed the door controls and snapped off a salute. She saluted him back without stopping and strode into what was clearly the outpost's command centre.

The Talon followed us, still continuing his report. "Also, routine sweeps report nothing new on the adjutant presence."

Nyreen flinched. It was a miniscule move, almost imperceptible, but clear as day to someone who knew her as well as I did. Strange that she reacted that way: adjutants were military officers who served as principle aides to their superiors. Unless this was a code word or designation for something else.

"'Adjutants'?" Shepard repeated.

There was a notable pause. "Creatures created by Cerberus," she finally replied, handing over the datapad . "They eviscerate their victim's DNA, converting them into more adjutants."

Sounded more like zombies than military aides.

"Some kind of Reaper-based weapon," Aria added. Her voice was serious, but notably calmer than Nyreen's. "I fought them before. They're a nightmare."

Reaper-based zombies, then. Made sense: the Reapers had perfected the horrific art of transforming victims into foot soldiers. And Cerberus had long been fascinated with experiments involving Reaper tech.

"It got worse after you left," Nyreen said bitterly. "Cerberus lost control of them."

They did seem to make a habit of that.

"Those things tore apart the gangs, then attacked everyone in sight. If Cerberus hadn't found a way to contain them, the entire station would be infected by now."

Shepard showed me one of the adjutants on the datapad. Pale grey skin, two arms and two legs, butt-naked, heavily muscled and a large squid-like head—tentacles and all. While I squelched a shudder of horror, Shepard spoke up. "Keeping your people alive through that couldn't have been easy."

Nyreen's head bowed as she closed her eyes in pain. "I watched good friends get turned into monsters. Right before my eyes. Then _I_ had to kill them."

She took a deep breath and composed herself. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an outpost to defend."

We watched her walk away. Aria was the first to break the silence. "The adjutants really got under her skin."

"Looks that way," I had to admit.

"So glad we agree, Garrus," Aria said. "Now if you'll excuse me. I need to check in with my forces."

* * *

While Aria was chatting with her minions, Shepard and I wandered around the Talon base. Well, Shepard wandered. I tagged along to watch his back and make sure he didn't stumble into any more trouble.

There were two observations I made right off the bat. First, the Talons were definitely more organized and disciplined than they had been in the past. They moved with an efficiency that could rival more legitimate military forces. Second, they were no longer a turian-only group. While turians certainly made up the vast majority of the Talons, I saw a smattering of other species as well.

Case in point: the conversation we observed to our left. "Here you go," a turian Talon said. We found more medical supplies in the last raid. All yours."

His buddy, a salarian, gawked. "Really?"

"Really."

"I… thank you. I'll make sure they're distributed properly." He wrung his hands nervously before asking "Do you think we'll make it out of here?"

"Absolutely. Boss is here now. We'll wipe the floor with Cerberus in no time."

That was a third thing: the turian spoke with absolute certainty. The kind that could only come from faith and loyalty. Derius never had that. He ruled his men with fear. When Nyreen said she had provided 'new direction' for the Talons, she was lowballing it.

I was so caught up in my thoughts, I almost didn't notice one of the Talons approach us. "Hey, Commander?"

"Yes?" Shepard replied.

"Not sure if you remember, but you stopped to give me some medi-gel."

That's right! I recognized the turian now.

"Of course," Shepard smiled. "Glad to see you're on your feet."

"Me too. Anyway, just wanted to say 'thank you.' And seeing how you're helping the boss…"

He handed over a shotgun mod. Omni-blade attachment, like a modern-day bayonet. Not the kind of thing a sniper like Shepard would use, but the thought was there. Naturally, Shepard thanked him back.

A few metres ahead, two turians were talking to a batarian. If it wasn't for the colour of their hardsuits, I might've mistaken them for Blue Suns instead of Talons. "Just reported into the boss," one of the turians said. "Still no adjutants—thank the spirits for that."

"Should we even be bothering with this?" the batarian asked. "There hasn't been any others since that dockworker turned, right?"

The second turian leaned forward. "Look, I know you're new to this outfit, but get used to the adjutant watch. It was only one of those things last time, and Cerberus still had to seal shut an entire ward to deal with it. They didn't even try to help the people trapped inside. I… I can't imagine what their last moments must have been like."

"Everyone has to take their turn on adjutant watch," the first turian agreed, carrying on from his colleague. "It's that big a deal. Trust me: you hear any weird, creepy whispering, you grab your friends—and _run_."

Meanwhile, Shepard was skimming through a datapad. He handed it to me to read as we went up a flight of stairs:

 _To: Scouting Team E  
From: Base 2_

 _Word is the attack on the station was led by Aria and that she's onboard now. Boss is heading off to investigate. Try to stay out of trouble while she's gone, and don't get caught. Our forces are tied down right now, so rescue options are limited._

 _B2-T_

Just further confirmation, if any was needed, that Nyreen had been on to us from the start. Speaking of which…

"Cerberus is backing off for now," she said to the umpteenth turian Talon I'd seen today. "Make sure the scouts keep an eye out for the next attack."

"You've done an excellent job, Nyreen," Aria said once the turian walked away. "The Talons will be a welcome addition to my forces."

Nyreen's eyes narrowed. "Do you really think I'm going to hand over command to you? Just like that?"

"I don't think—I know. Just as _you_ know what happens to people who argue with me."

"And if I say no?" Nyreen challenged. "You'll just kill me and take over? My people won't stand for that."

Aria's eyes casually swept across the room. There were a lot of Talons who were paying very close attention to the conversation unfolding before us. A lot of them had a firm grip on their weapons. "Yes, they do seem… nauseatingly loyal," she admitted. "No matter. Either way, I'll get what I want."

"Not this time," Nyreen snapped.

Shepard cleared his throat. "The truth is, none of us can do this alone. Our only chance is to join forces."

"You might be right," Nyreen said, "but the people of Omega are my priority."

Aria favoured her with a cold smile. "You take over one gang and you think you're ready to decide what's best for Omega? Nyreen; watch and learn." Activating her omni-tool, she opened a comm channel. "Ahz."

" _Everything's in place. The entire station's connected."_

One of the computer screens suddenly flickered, its display replaced by an image of Aria. A live image, I realized. Another screen switched over. And another. And another. Within seconds, every monitor in the base—and, presumably, the entire station—had been hacked.

"People of Omega," Aria began. "I have returned! Cerberus believes they have beaten you. They believe they have you under control. They are gravely mistaken."

Nyreen shook her head angrily. Aria glanced at her, gave another smile and continued. "You are the lawless of the galaxy. You cannot be beaten and you will _never_ be controlled. Be ready! Your chance to strike out against your oppressors is coming. Together, we will take Omega back!"

Personally, I think Shepard had given better speeches. But there was no doubt that Aria had struck a chord. Over the comm, we could hear her minions bursting into raucous cheers. More than one Talon joined them. I had a feeling similar outbursts were ringing out throughout Omega.

But at least one person wasn't amused. "That's your plan?" Nyreen spat. "Throw civilians at Cerberus?"

"Anything is better than being locked up like mindless animals waiting for slaughter," Aria replied. "And these are _Omega_ civilians, in case you forgot. None of them are strangers to violence. It's time Cerberus was reminded of that."

"I know what you're up to, Aria, and I don't like it." Nyreen might have said more, but she spotted some movement below. "The people of Omega may be painfully familiar with violence, but that doesn't mean they can all go up against Cerberus. Some of them can't defend themselves and need evacuating. Speaking of which, I have civilians that need to be escorted to safety. We'll deal with this later."

She marched down the stairs, pointing at various Talons to follow her. "All right, let's get these people ready to go. Now!"

Aria walked the other way. Shepard and I exchanged looks before hurrying to join her. "What are you trying to do?" I asked.

"'Trying'?" Aria echoed. "The people of Omega— _my_ people—love a good street fight. When it breaks loose, they'll be ready. Nyreen's code of ethics won't let her sit by if civilians are exposed."

She turned her head towards the Talon leader, who was giving orders to her men at a nearby holo-table. "It's what makes her utterly predictable and therefore easy to manipulate," she continued.

There was a sudden commotion near the entrance. A turian Talon burst in. "Cerberus is launching another offensive!" he shouted.

Nyreen cursed. "Looks like I'm not the only one who didn't like your little speech, Aria."

"Glad I got his attention," Aria smirked.

"Garrus and I have fought Cerberus numerous times and won," Shepard offered. "Aria's had a fair amount of experience too. Perhaps we could lend a hand."

I'll say this for Nyreen: she wasn't about to let her personal feelings cloud her tactical assessment of the situation. "Commander, landing pads are yours. My people and I will hold the main doors."

"Got it," Shepard nodded.

As the three of us headed off, I glanced at Aria. "You did this on purpose."

"I had nothing to do with the Cerberus assault."

"Don't be coy," I snorted. "You forced Nyreen's hand, both with that earlier public spat and your hijacked broadcast. Then you stepped back and let Shepard play the role of mediator. You made him the good cop to your bad cop."

"She already expected the worst of me," Aria acknowledged, "so there was no point in playing nice. Commander Shepard's reputation, on the other hand, precedes him. As I said: she's predictable and easy to manipulate."

"We can discuss your sales pitch later," Shepard interrupted. "Right now, we need to get our head in the game." He pointed at the door in front of us. "As soon as we go through, weapons are free."

* * *

The fight was well underway by the time we reached the landing pad, so we quickly got to work. I dropped an EMP on a Guardian before firing a shot right through the slit in his shield and into his brain. Shepard disabled two shield pylons and another Guardian, then ducked down to reload while Aria emptied a full clip into a Centurion.

A quick scan told me that Rampart mechs were on the way. Shepard saw the same thing, but chose to deal with the remaining assault troopers first. Being the generous man that he was, he let Aria and I have the pleasure of bringing them down.

Then we began tackling the mechs. The first two tried to be sneaky and flank us. We rewarded them with a fireball and a biotic blast, then hunted them down and blew their heads off. By the time the third mech arrived, we were able to concentrate our fire and finish the mechanized horror off in short order. That made it 43 kills for me, 40 for Shepard and 32 for Aria.

 _"Commander Shepard!"_ Nyreen called out over the comm. _"We need your help at the main doors."_

"Understood. Landing pad is clear. Garrus, Aria and I are on our way," Shepard replied.

Now that the gunfire had stopped and the conversation was over, we could hear a few groans. "Garrus, sweep the left. Scoop up any thermal clips you need, administer medi-gel to anyone who needs it. Aria, do the same on the right. I'll take the centre. Let's move!"

Luckily, there were only a couple Talons who needed first aid. We were back at the base within a minute. At a glance, I saw a half dozen Cerberus goons and mechs, accompanied by one big-ass Atlas. Shepard assessed the situation as well and quickly came up with a solution. "I'm going for the turret," he said, pointing to the left. "Cover me."

Using his cloak, he raced across the battlefield, climbed up a ladder and powered up the turret. Does it really surprise anyone to hear that Shepard leapt into the lead? No, didn't think so.

" _That's it!"_ Nyreen reported. _"Cerberus is pulling out. Let's talk, Shepard."_

She was administering some medi-gel to another wounded Talon when we found her.

"Casualty report," Shepard said.

"Two dead, seven injured."

Believe it or not, that would be considered 'light' casualties. "I'm sorry," I offered, for whatever it was worth.

"So am I." Nyreen rose to her feet and faced the three of us. "That being said… I have to say I'm impressed, Commander. The last time Cerberus attacked one of our outposts, they slaughtered all but a handful of my people and burned the building to the ground. You've managed to deal more damage to Cerberus in the last few days than we have since the occupation began."

Shepard shrugged modestly. "I had help."

"True." I couldn't help but notice that Nyreen looked at me instead of Aria when she said that. "Which is why I've come to a decision."

"Oh?"

"The Talons will work with you to retake Omega."

That was fast.

Some of that skepticism must have shown. "Like you said, Shepard, none of us can drive Cerberus away on our own," Nyreen elaborated. "Spirits know, I've tried. Your presence may provide the tipping point we need. Besides, someone's gotta make sure Aria doesn't run roughshod over our people."

"You see, Shepard?" Aria murmured.

Nyreen always did have sharp ears, and this was no exception. "Let me guess: she said I was predictably and therefore easy to manipulate."

"Pretty much word for word," Shepard confirmed, ignoring Aria's glare. "She thinks she's playing you."

"Nothing new here," Nyreen sighed. "One thing, though: I maintain command over my people. This is _not_ up for debate."

"That would make things easier," I said when Aria's glare didn't show signs of lessening. "Anyone you send to act as a liaison would wind up coordinating efforts with Nyreen anyway. Assuming you can spare someone in the first place."

"Fine," Aria relented. "Just have them ready."

"Oh, they'll be ready."

* * *

We left Nyreen to organize the Talons while we returned to Aria's bunker unmolested. It's a testament to how decisively we spanked Cerberus that our trip was relatively peaceful.

"We're almost there, Shepard," Aria said as we passed the first checkpoint. "The Talons will be the front-line fodder. Now we just need to bring down the force fields to clear the way to Afterlife."

"Which will release Omega's civilians," Shepard said.

"Exactly. Cerberus will have a million fires to put out. In one fell swoop, we'll have the people and the Talons working for us."

"As long as no one gets in our way," I frowned. "We can coordinate with the Talons, but the chaos offered by the civvies could impede our progress."

"Speaking of the Talons, you might not want to be so eager to throw their lives away," Shepard added. "They already suspect that you regard them as disposable. Keep offering evidence to prove that, and they won't follow our lead. You might not want to compromise this alliance before it even takes shape."

"I've learned to not put much stock in truth and goodwill," Aria replied.

"It might be time to start again," Shepard suggested.

"Tell you what," Aria said sweetly, "I'll take it under advisement. Now then, I'll be at the command console plotting our next move."

She went off to formulate the next step in her 'diabolical master plan' while Shepard and I wandered around aimlessly and listened in on random conversations. Some elcor wanted to talk to Shepard. An asari was growing increasingly worried when she found out her boyfriend Ruck had gotten lost in Cerberus-controlled territory. The elcor insisted on talking to Shepard. Two asari were grumbling about Bray's lack of interpersonal skills and how one of them should check her omni-tool for messages more often. And the elcor really, _really_ wanted to talk to Shepard.

So Shepard went over to talk to the elcor after exhausting all other conversations to eavesdrop on.

"Tentative excitement," the elcor droned. "Welcome to Harrot's Emporium, human."

Have I ever mentioned how much I love talking to elcor? They talk so damn slowly and take forever to get to the point. Not to mention that they sound like VIs—only VIs have more personality. Yes, that's not very sensitive and open-minded of me, but I stand by my statement. Besides, I didn't see any HR nuts breathing down my neck.

"Relived: I am grateful for Aria's return. Hidden backroom was getting… confining. Her patrol liberated me."

Yeah: elcor were pretty big. So being stuck in a closet would be more cramped than usual.

"Curious: you seem familiar."

"I had a discount at your store the last time I was here," Shepard offered.

Shepard left out the part where Harrot had strong-armed a quarian merchant named Kenn into a lousy, one-sided business arrangement, thereby preventing Kenn from leaving the station and continuing his Pilgrimage. This servitude had gone on for who knows how long… until Shepard stepped in and intimidated Harrot into releasing Kenn from the agreement. Not only that, but Shepard managed to sweet-talk Harrot into offering him a discount. And to top it all off, Shepard gave Kenn the thousand credits he needed to buy passage off Omega. Because Shepard's that kind of guy.

I couldn't help but notice that Harrot had quit smoking: the last time we'd seen him, he had a nasty habit of smoking cigars. As a matter of fact, during the time I was roaming the streets of Omega as Archangel, he'd been chain-smoking five or six of them a day. What can I say: despite my better judgement, I did pick up one or two things from C-Sec.

"Enlightened: I see."

Some humans liked to compare elcor to elephants. They also were under the belief that elephants had long memories. This encounter suggested that elcor and elephants might not be so similar. Just saying.

"Cunningly: I have a plan to recoup my losses since the Cerberus takeover. Informative: the general threw out Aria's couch from Afterlife upon taking over. I would like to gain her favour by returning it."

Okay. So he somehow thought that Aria was really, really attached to this couch and thought that she would shower him with gratitude—and credits—if he brought it back. Either this was _some couch_ or this was another sign that Harrot wasn't exactly a financial wizard.

"Temptingly: if you find it and send me the coordinates, I will make it worth your while."

Now see: most people would laugh in Harrot's face or tell him where to shove it, Shepard said "It's not a priority, what with Cerberus running around, but I'll keep my eyes open."

"Appreciative: upon success, I will give you a finder's fee for your trouble."

Well at least he didn't expect Shepard to drag it back.

"If I come across it, I'll give you a call."

"Courteously: have a nice day. Take a look at my kiosk if you want to buy anything."

Shepard thanked him… but he did not look at Harrot's kiosk. At all. Clearly he was running a fever.

"Hey there!" Shepard hailed a batarian—the batarian mechanic who'd been bitching about power converters when we first arrived. "This what you were looking for?"

"Those are exactly what I needed!" the mechanic cried out. "Thanks! Here: for your trouble."

Shepard palmed the shotgun upgrades the mechanic handed over. And the sniper rifle upgrades. And the pistol upgrades. And the assault rifle upgrades. You get the idea: the mechanic was really grateful.

At last, we wound up at the command console. Aria spared us a glance before turning back to her tech guy. "Talk to me, Ahz," she said.

"I've located the source that's powering the Cerberus force fields." He rapidly hammered at his console before pointing to the holo-display. The three-dimensional image of Omega was updated with a flashing red triangular icon.

"Yes, I see," she nodded. "Shepard, Garrus; take a look at this. The general is siphoning power from one of my main reactors deep in the bowels of Omega's mines."

"Unfortunately, access is cut off by the force fields themselves," Ahz told us.

"Not completely," Shepard frowned. "There's an open route through that dark area, then up." He pointed at the holo-image and traced the path he'd noted.

Aria made a non-committal noise as she considered this route. "The processing plant for one of the mines. It's been powered down. No force fields blocking it."

"We infiltrate there," Shepard proposed, "find our way through the mine, then take that elevator to the reactor's back door."

"Good eyes, Shepard," Aria complimented him. "Let's go."

"Not without me."

Nyreen marched up to the holo-table and glared at us, daring anyone to question her presence. None of us were that stupid.

At least, not until Bray hastily joined us. "Aria, my patrol caught her in the perimeter," he tried in a blatant effort to make up for losing Nyreen in the first place.

"Please," Nyreen scoffed. "You didn't catch me. I _let_ you escort me. Besides, we're… allies now. Didn't Aria tell you?"

"Um…"

"Nyreen was expected, Bray," Aria said smoothly, rescuing him before he made a bigger idiot of himself. "Return to your station."

Bray quickly recovered, gave a curt nod and left us. Nyreen got straight to the point: "The Talons are ready, but if I'm sending my people into the breach, I want to make sure those force fields come down for good. So like it or not, you're stuck with me."

Aria crossed her arms and took a step forward. "It's almost as if you don't trust me," she said, her words coming across in a quiet, silky menace.

Nyreen mirrored her movements. "It's exactly as if I don't trust you."

"Here's a crazy idea," I offered, pointing to Shepard. "Why don't you trust him?"

"We're going to war together," he reminded them. " _I'll_ make sure we can rely on each other."

"Agreed, Commander," Nyreen said gamely. "Thanks, Garrus. Glad to see the two of you aren't on a power trip. Not like some people."

Aria didn't dignify that with a comment. "Go wait by the med bay, Nyreen," she said instead. "We'll join you shortly."

As Nyreen walked away, Aria returned her attention to the holo-image. "I can almost _taste_ it, Shepard. Once we stop the leeching of the reactor, my path to the general will be clear."

"Well, aside from the thousands of troops standing between him and us," I added.

"Details," Aria sniffed. "We don't have time to waste. Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Me?" I shook my head. "No. Shepard? Probably."

"What happens when we bring the force fields down?" Shepard asked, right on cue.

"The people revolt, chaos ensues… and we lead the Talons and my forces on a wanton path right through the general's command centre in Afterlife."

"A bloodbath." Shepard didn't phrase that as a question.

"It's true," she admitted. "When the force fields come down, all hell will break loose. But as far as I'm concerned, all the blood's on Petrovsky's hands."

"Speaking of which: I know you're not the general's biggest fan. But is your hatred for him getting the best of you?"

"I'd say it's bringing out the best in me."

"Not from what I've seen."

"The man has turned Omega into a prison and a launchpad for Cerberus campaigns. You should hate him too. I for one can't wait to finally get my hands on him."

"Just don't forget the big picture. Getting your hands on him won't mean much if Omega's destroyed or everyone else is dead. One last question: I sensed a bit of tension between you and Nyreen. Do I need to be worried?"

"It was a long time ago, but Nyreen's the type that doesn't forget." Her eyes wandered to the med-bay, where Nyreen was patiently waiting before returning to Shepard. "I run roughshod over most people, and if the tracks I leave aren't deadly, they're certainly permanent. As different as we are, I wouldn't want anything to happen to her, so long as she doesn't get in my way.

"Now then, Shepard, I have last-minute orders to dole out. I'll meet you there, too."

She didn't even bother to mention me. Humans would respond by finding common ground with chopped liver. But I'm not human.

* * *

Having somehow run out of questions, Shepard went to the exit. I followed, somewhat surprised that he didn't accost anyone along the way.

Turned out, it was Nyreen who did the accosting. "Shepard. I know time is short, but I was hoping we could talk. Without Aria butting in."

"She'll be joining us soon," Shepard told her, looking over his shoulder. "Now may be our only chance."

It was a bit crowded, so the three of us found a more secluded corner. "I'm not trying to undermine Aria," Nyreen began. "I know she has to be ruthless. That's fine. Let her have revenge. I'm not doing this for me, and I'm not doing it for Aria or what we once had."

"It's for the people of Omega," Shepard said. "I get it."

"Someone has to be their voice in all this," Nyreen insisted. "Incredibly powerful forces are about to do battle with them caught in the middle. I just hope, as we bring down those force fields and go to war, that you can keep the people in mind."

"I will," Shepard nodded.

He glanced at the command centre. Aria was still bossing people around. "Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

I rolled my eyes. "Here we go."

Now that she'd voiced her concerns, Nyreen's expression shifted from serious to mildly amused. "Sure."

"Are your people ready for the fight?"

"You needn't worry about the Talons, Shepard. They were thieves and scoundrels once, but they serve with integrity now."

"Just to clarify," I butted in, "are the Talons done with the drug trade?"

"They are," she nodded. "They've found something more important, Garrus. We're fighting for a better world. I have to wonder if the same can be said for our friend." The pointed look she cast at the command centre told us which friend she was referring to. "I suppose we'll know soon enough."

"How did you get mixed up with Aria?" Shepard asked.

"I was happy in the turian military, but when my biotic abilities started to manifest, my superiors saw fit to reassign me." She allowed her biotics to briefly flare up, a shimmering blue field that ran over her body like a second skin. "They practically locked me away."

Oh, spirits. I shuffled my feet, not knowing what to say. No, that wasn't true—I knew what to say. I was just too much of a coward to say it.

"They said my reassignment would put me with other soldiers like me. People whose skill sets would complement my own. And that any isolation was a necessary sacrifice for the good of the Hierarchy. I tried to believe that. I really did. But… the more I tried to convince myself this was for the best, the more I felt I wasn't using my skills to benefit my people. So I quit. I floated around the galaxy, looking for a new purpose."

"And you found your way here?" Shepard guessed.

"More like I lost my way here," she sighed. "But then there was this beautiful, fierce creature who didn't let anyone define her. I'll admit, I was mesmerized. I wanted a little bit of that to rub off on me."

"How close were you two?"

Only Shepard could ask that question so frankly. Naturally, Nyreen responded. "The draw was undeniable. Her strengths mirrored my insecurities. Maybe deep down, it was the same for her. But trying to be with her turned into trying to _be_ her. Nyreen Kandros was vanishing."

"You seem like your own person to me," Shepard said.

Nyreen gave him a bittersweet smile. "For all the drama between us, I'm grateful to Aria. She helped me remember who I am. It took a lot to break away from her, but I regret nothing."

No thanks to me.

Shepard gave her a moment before asking his next question. "What do you know about the Cerberus force fields?"

"The technology comes from beyond the Omega-4 relay."

I exchanged an uneasy look with Shepard. We'd gone beyond the Omega-4 relay when it came time to face the Collectors on their home turf—and, incidentally, rescue our crew before they became raw material to make more Reapers. We'd blown their base to smithereens. Cerberus had apparently sifted through the remains. It would certainly explain where the Illusive Man had gotten the tech to upgrade his troops.

"Flesh disintegrates upon contact. The power required must be enormous. I fear that disrupting it could destabilize other systems on the station. I hope we'll proceed with care and certainty."

She added a slight, almost imperceptible, emphasis to those last few words. It seemed unnecessary, but she didn't know Shepard. She was probably still realizing that he _wasn't_ a bloodthirsty hired gun following Aria's beck and call.

"What's your impression of Petrovsky?"

"An adversary worthy of respect, and not just because he's shrewd. When I was just starting to organize the Talons, he offered amnesty to anyone who set down their weapon. A few of my people surrendered… and he made good on his word."

"So he has a code," Shepard said.

Or he was smart enough to realize that his life would go a lot easier if he established a reputation for keeping his promises. There were a lot of people in the galaxy, after all, and many of them counted their life spans in centuries. Double-crossing them now might work in the short term, but it would burn you in the long run.

"He does," Nyreen said in response to Shepard. "And, as near as I can tell, it doesn't exactly match the Illusive Man's."

"One last question," Shepard said. "By your own admission, you're a veteran. Why are you so disturbed by these adjutants?"

Her eyes filled with dread. "I know fighting Reapers is old hat to you, Commander. But these? What they do to people? They could still be out there. And if they return? I don't want to even think about what would happen to Omega's people. The image of that drives me… and haunts me."

Nyreen couldn't keep the quiver of fear out of her voice as she finished. And I couldn't blame her. She was right about Shepard. He'd had the worst luck, facing the Reapers and their creations over and over again—even before the war began. By this point, he was a battle-hardened veteran. So was I, since he kept dragging me into each and every mess. We'd seen enough that we could probably get past the initial horror of meeting the adjutants face to ugly face—because, let's face it, we were gonna run into them—and focus on the bloody business of taking them down.

"Hang in there, Nyreen," Shepard said reassuringly. "We'll get through this. And I appreciate your candour."

"Well, I appreciate the fact that you're willing to listen," Nyreen replied. "I know I've said this before, but Aria isn't the most receptive person around."

I didn't hear Shepard's response as I was a little preoccupied thinking about the part Nyreen had left out. The reason she had been reassigned in the first place…

* * *

Did you ever think you knew someone? I mean really, _really_ knew someone? And then, you learned something new—just one new fact—and it changed your entire world?

I thought I knew Nyreen. Knew her for the most passionate, caring, infuriatingly stubborn woman I had ever met. Which was probably why we kept breaking up and coming back to each other.

And then everything changed.

It all happened during a mission out on the fringes of the Minos Wasteland. The Hierarchy had located a smuggling base and had sent our unit to gather intel for an upcoming assault. Unfortunately, the smugglers discovered our presence and decided to strike first.

"They're everywhere!" Veria, one of the newbies fresh out of training, shrieked.

"Then shoot everywhere!" Thorus snapped. As if to demonstrate, he aimed his assault rifle, paused, then let off a three-burst. The hostile he was shooting at abruptly lost all interest in the battle, along with anything else. "That's how it's done," Thorus declared, just before a shotgun blast took his head off.

I shook my head. Thorus was a seasoned veteran, there was no doubt, but his battlefield experience was matched only by his tendency to toot his own horn. The latter quality had finally caught up with him, and at the worst possible time. With his demise, the odds were now three-to-one. Well, four-to-one if Verius didn't get a grip.

Raising my assault rifle, I opened fire. My target ducked, though none of my shots went anywhere near him. In response, another hostile went full auto with her own assault rifle. None of her shots hit anyone, but it sure did make a mess.

Crouching down, I switched to my sniper rifle and leaned around the corner of the crate that I'd been hiding behind and squeezed the trigger. My first shot overloaded my target's shields; the second went right through his eye.

A red light flashed on my HUD, warning me that the sniper rifle had overheated. No surprise, really—I was more astonished by the fact that I managed to get off two shots. All those modifications I made must've paid off. Not that I had any doubt, of course.

While I waited for my rifle to cool down, Nyreen scored a kill of her own. Verius wasn't quite as successful—he really needed to spend more time at the firing range—but at least he was making a passable attempt at cover fire. I shuffled on my feet impatiently before checking my HUD again. My sniper rifle hadn't even started to cool down yet. Growling, I dropped it and pulled out my assault rifle. It would let me contribute to the fight. If nothing else, I could do a better job than Verius.

" _Squad Bortus, this is Nalus."_

Spirits be praised. I ducked down to activate my comm before resuming fire. "This is Garrus. It's good to hear your voice, sir."

" _Garrus? Where is Sergeant Natra?"_

Nalus had a point. Protocol dictated that the squad leader should respond. Only… "She's dead, sir. We've taken heavy casualties."

I'll say this for Nalus: he took that bad news without breaking stride. _"Status report."_

"Nyreen, Veria and I are the only ones still alive. We got ambushed before we even saw the base. Right now, we've got seven hostiles north of our position. They've got us pinned down."

"And they're splitting up," Nyreen called out loudly so Nalus could hear her. "Think they're trying to flank us."

" _Understood. Gunship's en route. ETA: one minute."_

Air support in the area? And that close to our location? Since when was my luck _that_ good? Not that you want to question that sort of thing too much. The spirits have a way of getting testy when you do that.

Turned out Nalus was spot-on: only a few seconds passed before I could hear the howl of the gunship's thrusters. Before long, the silhouette of the gunship appeared on the horizon. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement. Maybe the smugglers saw the same thing and wanted to run while they still had a chance.

Or maybe they saw the same thing and wanted to blow it out of the sky with a surface-to-air missile. Which they did.

I knew my luck couldn't be that good.

Humans believe that they can see their entire lives at moments like this, flashing by like a vid on fast-forward. Nothing like that happened, either because I'm not human or because my life was that meaningless. All I could think as the gunship exploded upon impact was: this is it. I'm gonna die.

Everything around me disappeared in a roiling storm of fire and smoke. I waited for the flames to wash over me and burn me alive. Waited for the shrapnel to rip me to shreds. Waited to feel the agony as my flesh was stripped from my bones…

…but nothing happened.

Slowly, I realized all that fire and smoke was sweeping _around_ me. Like it had met some kind of obstacle. A dome-shaped obstacle, flickering with blue light. Like some kind of shield or kinetic barrier. I looked around in bewilderment, wondering where it was coming from.

Then I saw Nyreen. Knees bent, arms outstretched, fingers splayed in some arcane pattern. Body crackling with blue energy. As I watched, tendrils of that same blue energy reached out, moving like a hanar's tentacles, to touch that shield. That barrier.

That biotic barrier.

Nyreen. She was a biotic.

Spirits.

I thought about that while waiting for Nalus to send another gunship, the first one having taken out the remaining smugglers in the crash. I thought about that on the ride back to the starship. And I thought about that on the long, long return trip to Palaven.

Nyreen was a biotic. And I didn't know what to do about that. Well, that's not true. I knew what I had to do. I just didn't know if I should.

You see, different species had different reactions to biotics. Asari found it perfectly normal, which made sense given that all asari are naturally biotic from birth. Krogan biotics trained to become battlemasters like Wrex. Human reactions range from prejudice and distrust—mostly amongst the civilian population—to recruitment efforts from the Alliance military. Salarian biotics were usually assigned to intelligence rather than risking such valuable assets on the front lines. As for turians, well… there's a bit of history there.

During the Unification Wars, turian biotics were planted amongst infantry units as 'observers' and 'evaluators'—which really meant their orders were to gather every nugget of personal information possible on the soldiers and monitor their loyalty. Or they were sent on covert-op missions, which usually involved assassination. Or sabotage and assassination. Or assassination followed by the threat of more assassination. You get the idea.

As a result, biotics didn't have the best reputation amongst the rank-and-file. The word 'biotic' didn't exactly become synonymous with 'turncoat' or 'back-stabber', but it was pretty damn close. To address 'safety and unit cohesion concerns,' Hierarchy protocol requires all biotic soldiers to be identified as soon as possible so they could be re-assigned to specialized units, known as Cabals, for advanced biotic training.

The thing was, Cabals were isolated from the rest of the military. It was for everyone's protection, so we were told. 'Normal' turians didn't want to be betrayed by biotics, and the biotics didn't want to be swarmed and lynched by their counterparts. It was for the greater good. I always thought it made sense. I always believed that if I ever found myself in this scenario, I wouldn't hesitate to follow the established protocol, like a good and dutiful turian. Because the good of the Hierarchy outweighed my personal desire. But this wasn't some nameless hypothetical turian. This was Nyreen. If I followed procedure and reported Nyreen's status, we would be separated. And I would never see her again.

In the end, I did my duty.

They came for Nyreen in the middle of the night.

I never saw her again.

* * *

It had been years since Nyreen had been 'reassigned.'

Maybe that night was the point where I stopped caring about being a good turian. Maybe that was why I was so easily frustrated by people and organizations clinging to protocols and regulations like holy writ. But that was just a cop-out. The truth was that I've always struggled with figuring out the right thing to do. I've always had problems with knowing when I went too far and crossed the line.

But Nyreen survived. After all this time, after everything I did to her, she was still alive. Perhaps now was my time to make amends. I opened my mouth—

"Aria's heading this way," Shepard said. "Looks like we'll be leaving soon."

I closed my mouth. The window had closed. Another time, then.

We soon realized that 'soon' meant right the hell away. Aria quick-marched us down a corridor and into an elevator. She didn't say a word. None of us did. The tension built up in the elevator car until you could cut it with an omni-blade.

It was a relief when we finally reached our destination. "We're arriving at one of the eezo processing plants," Aria explained as the elevator doors opened into a small room. "It's been powered down, so we'll have to pry open the door."

She pointed to the door on the opposite end of the room. Shepard and I looked at each other. "We got it," I told her.

"Access to the mine should be on the far side," Aria added.

"And the reactor is beyond that?" Nyreen pressed.

Aria stared at Nyreen as Shepard and I slowly opened the doors. "According to the schematics. I ran Omega, Nyreen. I didn't work the mines myself." She pulled out her shotgun and squeezed through the doors.

"No," Nyreen retorted, hot on her heels. "No, you had indentured servants for that… spirits."

I quickly pushed through the doors to see what was going on. Nyreen was staring at a pair of bodies. Aria had already crouched down to examine them. "Relax," she said. "They're Cerberus."

Shepard joined us and crouched down beside Aria. "They've been ripped to shreds. Yeah they're Cerberus, but that's a nasty way to go."

The three of us looked around uneasily. Whatever did this could still be here. And if they could do _this_ to the Cerberus goons lying at our feet, they might be able to do the same to us. Nyreen was the first to voice what we were all thinking. "I don't like this."

"I hear that," Shepard said grimly. "Let's get going. Which way?"

Aria consulted her omni-tool and pointed us in the right direction. Shepard took the lead, with the rest of us right behind him. We walked single-file down catwalk after catwalk, the monotony broken up only by random piles of crates—none of which had anything worth looting—and dead Cerberus soldiers—each one thoroughly eviscerated. The only sounds we heard were our footsteps on the corrugated metal catwalks and the steady rattling of overworked machinery in the distance.

"More dead," I finally said, pointing his gun's flashlight at another two bodies. That made at least seven dead hostiles. All fairly recent, judging by the colour of the bloodstains and the fact that every corpse had cooled to room temperature.

"It's a bloodbath," Nyreen shook her head. "I've got a bad feeling. We shouldn't be—"

"Quiet," Shepard suddenly hissed. "What's that sound?"

We all froze and listened. A soft growl pierced the darkness, rising to an unholy shriek before cutting off.


	5. Beware the Dark

**Chapter 5: Beware the Dark**

We were walking through a dark mine that we believed was abandoned and empty, aside from the piles of dead Cerberus goons... until we heard an unholy shriek that scared the crap out of us.

First thing I wanted to know was: what was it? What made that sound? I wanted to put a label on it. A name. Some kind of identity. If I knew what it was, I'd know whether it was a threat and, if so, how many bullets I'd need.

More to the point, nameless unknown things were always more terrifying. People fear what they don't know, what they don't understand—which is why I have so many problems with the adage 'ignorance is bliss.' Not knowing makes it worse. Even giving the unknown a name reduces the fear factor, the power it holds over you.

So when Aria identified the noise as coming from an adjutant, it made things better. Yes, there was a crazed, feral monster out there that could rip us to shreds or turn us into carbon copies of itself, but at least it was a crazed, feral monster with a _name_. Shepard felt the same, judging by the shift in his posture.

Nyreen, on the other hand, froze up. "Oh no. The general must have locked this place down to keep it inside."

"Not a bad idea," Shepard admitted. "But hey, this is a big mine. Maybe it won't find us."

"You really think we'll be that lucky?" Aria asked skeptically.

"I really think we should get moving," Shepard replied. "Now then... we want to be heading..."

"That way," Aria pointed. "The elevator to the mines is over there, through that door."

While Shepard went to investigate, I nudged Nyreen. "Hey," I whispered softly. "It's gonna be alright."

"You don't know that, Garrus," she hissed. "You haven't seen what they can do."

"I know we have a better chance of dealing with them if we all take a deep breath, watch each others' back and work together."

"Right. Deep breath." Nyreen inhaled sharply. "Right. I can do this."

While Nyreen was busy convincing herself, Shepard came back. "Door controls are offline," he reported. "No power."

"There should be a master circuit breaker here," Aria said. "Somewhere."

Right. Stumble around blind looking for something to turn the lights on. Only we had no idea where it was or what it looked like. And if we take too long or make too much noise, the monster would come out of the dark to rip us to pieces and eat our spleens—that's the best case scenario, by the way. 'Cuz the monster was definitely out there, judging by the random guttural noises we kept hearing. And the rattling of overworked machinery. And the sounds of our rapid breathing. Damn it, Garrus! Get it together!

We continued to work ourselves into a state, flinching at every noise we heard, until Nyreen saw something. "Those pipes power the door," she said. "We should follow them."

I know what you're thinking: wouldn't you have cables or wires powering the door? But the things she was pointing to _did_ look like pipes. In any event, if the wires/cables/pipes did power the door, then it was possible that they'd lead to the circuit breaker. So we hopped over a rail, landed on the wires/cables/pipes and began following it.

"The whispering's receding," Aria observed after a minute.

She was right. All I could hear were the sounds of our footsteps and the various noises from all the equipment around us.

"Maybe the adjutant doesn't like its odds," Shepard offered hopefully.

"Don't kid yourself," Nyreen replied bitterly. "I've seen one of those things take down a squad of soldiers."

By this point, we were walking along another catwalk that ran parallel to the pipes—mostly because it was wider and flatter, so we didn't have to walk single-file and hope we didn't slip and fall. After a wrong turn involving a dead end and a datapad full of credits, Aria pointed towards a nearby ladder. "Down the ladder!"

"There's the power control!" Nyreen added.

Sliding down, we hastened towards a large rusty console that was offline. Shepard slammed a fist firmly on a big red button—they're always big red buttons —and breathed a sigh of relief as the console powered up. As the display went through a start-up sequence, the lights flickered on. Aria took a good look around and frowned at all the damage she saw. "When this is over, there'll be a lot of repairs to make," she said.

"I hope you'll focus on the civilian areas first," Nyreen said.

Aria rolled her eyes. "You are relentless," she seethed.

"That's one thing we have in common."

Was this how things might have turned out if Nyreen and I had stayed together? Both of us constantly needling each other, throwing jab after passive-aggressive jab, never giving each other the benefit of the doubt?

Before I could pursue that train of thought, the wall behind us exploded as a… thing burst through and shrieked at us.

"Spirits!" Nyreen exclaimed.

Its skin was black as the void. Except for three round, pupil-less eyes that blazed at us like miniature flashlights. And the large, pale, bulbous sacs that bulged out from either side of its otherwise angular head. And the three or four tentacles that dangled from its mouth like a premature hanar. And the row of glowing protrusions that ran down its arms and across its ribs like strings of lights. Or the claws that flexed open and shut around something that looked awfully similar to a gun…

Nope. Definitely a gun. One that the adjutant raised towards us and fired. Thankfully, it missed.

"Open fire!" Shepard yelled, raising his sniper rifle and pulling the trigger. I got off the next shot, with Aria right behind. Nyreen, though…

…Nyreen stared at the adjutant in horror. Eyes wide open in horror. Mandibles twitching. Gun pointed at the floor for all the good that would do her. Or any of us.

"Nyreen, wake up!" Aria snapped.

With a jolt, Nyreen pulled herself together and raised her weapon. Her first shot was hesitant, like a rookie firing a gun for the first time. Her second shot was more confident.

"Everyone take cover!" I shouted. Ducking behind one of the other computers, I pulled out my particle rifle and fired a thin emerald beam into its biotic barriers. The adjutant whipped around and fired back. While it was distracted, Aria hurled a sphere of biotic energy at its barriers. Nyreen's fireball followed suit. Enraged, the adjutant leapt towards Nyreen who dove out of the way seconds before its claws could eviscerate her. Shepard took the opportunity to empty the rest of his clip, doing enough damage to collapse the adjutant's barriers. While he reloaded, I switched to my sniper rifle and snapped off a shot. The adjutant tried to reach Nyreen one more time, then gave up and turned towards me.

Before it could pounce, I fired again. Shepard joined in. With a final roar, the adjutant disintegrated into a mass of blue-green sparks. They lingered, flickering in the light, before fading away one mote at a time. Nyreen shuddered as the last few sparks disappeared. "I hate those things," she muttered.

"Hate should make you deadlier," Aria scowled. "That looked like fear to me."

"All right," Shepard interrupted, before the ladies could get back to clawing each others' eyes out. "Back to the door."

Staring down at the spot where the adjutant made its last stand, I realized it hadn't vanished entirely. A pool of green-blue blood—or bodily fluids or something—lay on the ground, glowing with a strange, eerie light. I felt myself shiver as I turned away.

As we headed towards the door, something occurred to me. A question that had eluded me earlier. A very important question?

Which of us claimed the kill for that adjutant?

* * *

Now that the power was restored, it was easy for Shepard to bypass the lock and get us through. Our next stop was the cargo lift. All we had to do was cross a few more catwalks and go up or down a few more sets of stairs—seriously, how many of them were there? For a moment, I found myself wishing for something to break the monotony. I quickly banished that thought. You never know when the spirits will hear you and—

"Another one," Nyreen cried out, her voice trembling with fear.

Damn it.

"Fire at will!" Shepard ordered.

Aria's biotics hit the adjutant before Shepard's plasma caused a deafening explosion. I quickly snapped off a shot from my sniper rifle, collapsing its barriers. The adjutant belatedly dove for cover before Shepard's grenade struck home. Taking a cue from me, Shepard pulled out his sniper rifle and opened fire. We took turns shooting from what basically amounted to point-blank range, considering that both of us were within ten metres of the thing. Aria pitched in with some gunfire too, but I was fairly confident it was either me or Shepard who could claim credit for the kill shot.

I couldn't help but Nyreen was too paralyzed to contribute with more than the occasional shot. The frown on Shepard's face told me that he saw it too.

The rest of the journey to the cargo lift was relatively uneventful. It was only as Shepard reached for the controls that everything went to hell. Aria was watching our six, so she was the first to notice. "Shepard, look alive!" she snapped. "More adjutants!"

"Must've heard the gunfire earlier," he said.

"Oh no!" Nyreen gasped.

"What?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter why they're coming, what matters is they're coming here. To the cargo lift. Which is now operational thanks to us. We can't let them escape!"

She was right. We could easily take the cargo lift and get out of here. But there was a good chance that the adjutants could follow us the same way. Or they could use the lift to get out of the mines, thereby breaking the quarantine Cerberus had imposed, and then start slaughtering and replicating.

Aria and Shepard tag-teamed the first adjutant with biotics and plasma. This time, Shepard was able to fire a shot from his sniper rifle and then toss another grenade. Content that he could finish it off, I began looking for the next one.

Gotcha! "Nyreen; plasma!" I barked, pointing a talon.

Nyreen thankfully had snapped out of whatever funk she was in earlier. As soon as her fireball hit home, I deployed an EMP. Then I raised my sniper rifle and fired a shot. Another fireball flew in—from Shepard, judging from the trajectory. I managed to fire another shot before Aria's biotics ripped it to shreds.

A roar alerted us to the third one. Unlike the first two, this one didn't have any barriers. We decided not to look the equine present in the mouth, or whatever the human saying was.

"I think we got them all," Nyreen announced after the third adjutant expired.

"Let's clear the area," Shepard said, "then try the elevator again. Stay alert, people."

Sticking together in a loose diamond formation, we began searching the immediate area. No adjutants. Which meant we could catch our breath, reload our weapons and restock our supply of thermal clips in peace. Shepard, naturally, found a datapad stuffed with credits. And another datapad that offered a little intel:

 _Security Memo:_

 _The processing facility is to be locked down immediately._

***This is a priority Alpha order.***

 _Be advised that anyone or anything attempting to evacuate the area will be terminated with extreme prejudice._

A little extreme, perhaps, but it was clear that Cerberus treated the adjutant threat seriously. Now. After bringing it to Omega and losing control. Just saying.

At last, we made it to the cargo lift. "All right," Shepard said as the doors slowly opened. "Into the elevator."

"I'll disable the controls so no one can use them after we leave," Nyreen offered. "Just in case."

"Good idea," I nodded.

"Then on to the mines," Aria said.

After Nyreen worked her magic, we began our trip onwards and upwards.

"What's eating you, Nyreen?" Aria asked a few seconds into our journey.

"Just processing," Nyreen shrugged. "It's clear General Petrovsky sealed that area to keep the adjutants in."

"Right," Shepard said. "Along with some unlucky soldiers who couldn't get out in time."

Nyreen practically pounced on his words. "Yes. Exactly. The creatures killed them, but didn't turn them into more adjutants. Every time one of those monsters killed someone, their victims transformed into adjutants almost immediately. We must have passed over a dozen bodies—bodies that should have turned. But they didn't."

Put that way, she had a point.

"I can't shake it," Nyreen concluded. "Something's off."

"You're just spooked," Aria said.

"There's a rhythm to this place, Aria. To Cerberus. If you'd stuck it out here, maybe you'd feel it too."

"I've been here long before you were even here, Nyreen. Trust me: I know its rhythms."

"Whatever's in our way, we'll deal with it," Shepard intervened, before the women could get worked up again. "Understood?"

Nyreen nodded. Aria was too busy staring at the walls. I thought she was ignoring Shepard out of sheer stubbornness before she shook her head. "You can hear the drills, even in the elevator. Damn it, they shouldn't be straining like that."

She was right, come to think of it. There _was_ a high-pitched whirring noise, along with the usual hum of the elevator.

"Cerberus must be working them hard," Nyreen guessed.

A ping told us we had arrived, the cheerfulness of the chime a sharp contrast to the grimness of the situation. "Where to?" Shepard asked after we hustled out.

"Access to the reactor is somewhere on the upper level," Aria replied.

"Then we'll have to find a way up there," I said. Looking around, I saw a catwalk up ahead leading into an area marked 'EEZO ANALYSIS TESTING. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.' "Let's go there and see where it leads."

* * *

The catwalk led to a few bins of glowing ore, a med-kit, an assault rifle mod and a Cerberus shield pylon. Shepard ignored the first, emptied the second, swiped the third and shot the fourth.

Strangely enough, it was the last one that attracted some attention. "Intruders!" someone yelled. "Sound the alert!"

As the obligatory alarm began blaring, a Centurion poked his head out. "It's Shepard!" he yelled, just before I dropped an EMP on him. "They're coming for the reactor!"

"It's Shepard! They're coming for the reactor!"

"I thought you said it's Shepard. Why're you saying 'they'?"

"He brought friends!"

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?"

"Seriously? You're gonna bitch about my grammar now?"

While the hostiles went through some kind of stand-up comedy act, we decided to get to work. Shepard launched a fireball at the Centurion with questionable grammar, then blew his head away with his sniper rifle. I took out an assault trooper the same way. The women ganged up on a second trooper who was caught out in the open—I think Nyreen got credit for that one.

We waited for reinforcements, but none came. Either Cerberus was sleeping on the job or they were busy getting set up somewhere else. Shepard decided that we should press on rather than give them the chance to get entrenched, silently motioning us forward with a curt hand gesture.

"Charges activated—proximity sensor!"

"Aria—with me," Shepard said. "We'll go right. "Garrus, Nyreen; cover the left."

Even when split up, I maintained my tactical awareness of the situation. Shepard used his cloak to sneak up on a Centurion and an assault trooper before opening fire. He and Aria got one kill each. Nyreen and I came across a similar team. I got both kills, though Nyreen did help with her EMP.

"Clear!" Shepard called out.

"Clear!" I echoed after scanning for hostiles.

"We can use that maintenance elevator across the way," Aria told us.

"Got it," Shepard nodded. "Regroup and move out. Keep your eyes peeled, people."

The four of us got together and headed for the maintenance elevator. We were halfway there when we heard a beeping noise. Apparently, we'd tripped the proximity sensor that had been mentioned earlier. We hastily retreated, seconds before the catwalk up ahead suddenly exploded. Guess we knew where the charges were set. Oops.

"We need to find an alternate route across," Aria observed.

She was wasted as a crime lord. Clearly, Aria T'Loak should've been a detective.

The explosion drew some unwanted attention. No sooner had we begun looking around for another way to the elevator than Shepard spotted a pair of Nemesis snipers. They were still searching for us when Nyreen and I launched a pair of EMPs. Shepard took out one, reclaiming the lead in the kill count. Aria put the hurt on the other one, but it was Nyreen who finally took her out.

There was no time to celebrate. Bullets began ricocheting around us as further reinforcements arrived on our right. I took the high ground and began shooting, taking out a Centurion with two shots. Aria and Nyreen dealt with an assault trooper—Nyreen got the kill again—while Shepard went down to the floor below and took out a Centurion who was trying to advance on our position. Another Centurion charged forward, only to stop as he realized he was outnumbered four to one. Before he could do anything, Nyreen fried his shields. I put him out of his misery with a concussive round.

"Everyone okay?" Shepard asked. After receiving our confirmations, he split us up to search different areas for anything useful—there wasn't any. So we reconvened at a locked gate labelled 'MAINTENANCE AREA.' "Looks like that goes under the conveyer belt," Nyreen said.

"Might be promising," Shepard agreed.

Sure enough, the gate led to a ladder, which descended to a corridor running underneath a large eezo drill and an adjacent conveyer belt that presumably sent ore to other areas for processing. It could lead us to the elevator Aria had mentioned earlier. Personally, I think Shepard chose that route because he saw a pistol mod and a medical station.

Once he unlocked the gate, we followed him into the maintenance area and down the ladder. While Shepard amused himself by filling his pockets, Aria looked around and scowled. "Bastards are running this place too hot. It'll burn out in a month."

"Stay focused," Shepard warned. "Hostiles up ahead."

Shepard took out a shield pylon while the rest of us found cover. Then we got to work. The first hostiles we saw were a combat engineer and a pair of Rampart mechs. We focused on the engineer, as none of us wanted him deploying his portable turret or performing any battlefield repairs. A flurry of EMPs, plasma and biotics took him down, with Nyreen's fireball burning him to a crisp. Switching to our sniper rifles, Shepard and I emptied our clips into each of the mechs. Once they had collapsed in a fit of sparks, we headed forward.

Nyreen paused by a locked gate, beyond which we could see a ladder. "I think this is going to get us there," she said.

Once Shepard bypassed the lock, we passed through the gate and went up the ladder. From there, Shepard cleared the area to make sure there weren't any hostiles who could sneak up on us. And if he happened to find some spare credits or weapon mods to swipe in the process, well that was surely a fortunate coincidence.

Yeah, I didn't buy it either.

As we continued, Shepard idly picked up another datapad, glanced at it and put it down. "Anything interesting?" I asked.

"One worker apparently thinks working with eezo is a death sentence; the other realizes that eezo is only dangerous if inhaled in dust form."

Right. Because most biotics, asari not included, gained their abilities from dust-form eezo exposure—assuming they didn't develop some form of cancer and die a horrible death. "So we don't have to worry about walking around all this eezo?" I asked, nodding at all the black rocks lying around, veins of eezo glowing an eerie blue.

"Nope."

"Good. Where to next?"

Shepard wordlessly pointed at yet another ladder. I suppressed a groan.

We were about halfway up when we overheard some Cerberus goons talking. "They've crossed!" one of them barked. "New orders are to fall back!"

"Negative! They're coming for the reactor! Defend the elevator!"

"Guess we're gonna have some company," Nyreen said.

"Oh good." I didn't have to look back to know Aria had a feral grin on her face.

"Let me scout ahead," Shepard told us before engaging his cloak. He vanished for about ten seconds before returning. "Assault troopers and Rampart mechs," he reported. "Garrus and I will handle the troopers. "Aria, Nyreen; you get the mechs."

That plan worked at first. Shepard and I got a trooper each, while Aria finished off a mech with Nyreen's help. The trouble came when a Rampart mech flanked us and began pouring hot lead into our shields. As my shields collapsed, I quickly dove behind some pipes. I tasted the sharp tang of blood in my mouth as I reloaded my rifle. "Got some trouble here," I said.

"Noted," Shepard replied. "People, I've got eyes on the mech. Follow the orders on your HUD."

He'd set up a carefully planned sequence of moves for us to follow. Nyreen would start with a burst of plasma, followed by Aria's biotic barrage. Then Shepard would indulge in another bout of pyromania. If the damn mech was still standing, I could finish it off with a concussive round. Which I did, putting me back in the lead.

After that, things went pretty much as you'd expect. Shepard and I went back to landing headshots on assault troopers. Aria and Nyreen handled the mechs, taking care to engage them at a distance. Before we knew it, the fighting was over.

I did a quick tally. Nyreen was in fourth place at 19. Aria had almost double her kills at 36. Shepard was in a comfortable second place with 52 kills to his credit. And I had 53. Could've had more, but it isn't a contest or anything.

We paused long enough to recharge our shields and reload our weapons before making the rest of the way to the maintenance elevator. It was more of a glorified lift with some handrails to keep the occupants from falling off. But as long as it got us to our destination, I didn't really care.

"Made it!" Aria said with a smile. "Hit the switch!"

Shepard obliged and the maintenance elevator/lift slowly began its ascent. "They know our target," Nyreen warned. "Expect heavy reinforcements."

"Just stay focused and find the access point to the reactor," Aria replied.

* * *

The elevator eventually came to a stop, opening into a small room. There was only one door. As we approached it, we could hear a Cerberus goon give his report: "We're all set up here."

So were we. As soon as the doors opened, I sent an EMP straight into the shields of the combat engineer who had the ill luck to be standing there. Shepard promptly blew his head off with his sniper rifle.

" _Checkpoint two-four-seven: update enemy location."_

The engineer had his comm on an open channel. We stepped through the doors into a corridor and swept the area.

" _Checkpoint two-four-seven: are you there?"_

I suppose we could've played mind games with the guy on the other end, but we were too busy making sure the coast was clear. Shepard took point, leading us to a weapons locker on the right where we stuffed our pockets with thermal clips—and, in Shepard's case, a shotgun mod. Then we headed left. We paused to pay respects to the Cerberus soldier who was crushed between a set of doors—by which I meant Shepard looted his body—patched up our injuries—Shepard emptying a medical station—and did some recycling—Shepard and his salvaging.

There was nowhere else to go but down a ladder, so down we went.

"The elevator to the reactor is across the way," Aria said, pointing with her hand.

"Careful," Nyreen added, "this place is falling apart."

She wasn't kidding. A minute into our journey, the entire catwalk abruptly shook. We all stumbled, barely catching ourselves from falling down. As it was, a section of the catwalk in front of us shook loose and plummeted into the abyss below, forcing us to carefully navigate a thinner and far more precarious support beam instead.

Thankfully, that was the hardest part of the trip. We resumed our journey along the catwalk, followed it as it twisted and turned. No one would want to include the mines on their Omega sightseeing tour, I decided as we went up a ladder for the umpteenth time. Even with the power on, the only illumination I saw came from the rows of small lights built into either end of the catwalk, some distant wall- or ceiling-mounted lights and the status displays from whatever machinery was running.

Come to think of it, it had been a while since we'd been in a gunfight. Or had seen some hostiles that needed shooting. Or had been ambushed.

Nyreen noticed the same thing. "Strange… we're not being attacked anymore."

"I don't like this," I said.

"Yeah," Aria nodded. "Be ready for anything."

For once, Shepard didn't say anything. He simply double-checked the settings on his weapons before leading us across another catwalk.

At last, we reached an elevator leading to the mining complex—as evidenced by the big neon sign in capital letters. We got in and started heading up.

Shepard, Nyreen and I had our game faces on. Aria, on the other hand…

"Why are you grinning, Aria?" Nyreen asked, breaking the silence.

"We're almost there," Aria explained. "When the force fields come down, this war _finally_ begins."

"For some of us, this war started months ago," Nyreen pointed out.

"That wasn't war, babe," Aria said. "That was just warm-up."

The reminder of their previous relationship unsettled me. You'd think I would have gotten over it. But that would require me to actually deal with what had happened, rather than suppress it for all these years.

With a cheerful chime, the elevator came to a stop. Slowly, the doors slid open. "There's the reactor," Aria said. "Straight ahead."

It would've been hard to miss. In a giant cavern full of dull, grey machinery, the reactor loomed overhead like a giant monolith, crackling with eldritch violet energy. Around it, displays and consoles glowed with red light, like some kind of summoning circle.

Eldritch energy. Summoning circle. Next thing you know, I'd be looking for robed humans flying on brooms. I shook my head to wake myself up and get back to reality.

Shepard carefully led us towards the reactor, detouring now and then to check out the adjacent catwalks. Nothing other than salvage and thermal clips. Shepard filled his pockets with the former before checking out the computers. None of them seemed to have any access or control over the force fields. So after we replenished our supply of thermal clips, we made our way to the reactor.

And that's when the force fields sprang to life. They stretched several metres into the air, wrapping around us in a perfect circle of fiery red light.

A small spherical drone hovered into view, its inbuilt holographic grid already powering up. The drone came to a stop, its rotating holographic grid shimmering into an ersatz representation of General Petrovsky . "I commend you," he said without preamble. "Your plan of attack was impeccable."

"Impeccable, but expected," Shepard said.

"More like 'lured'," Nyreen replied.

"I knew the only chance of success you had lay in shutting down the force fields that impeded your mobility," Petrovsky acknowledged, "just as I knew the reactor was the key to that goal. I gave you no choice but this route."

"A route infested with adjutants," I recalled. "If we could take them out, then that's one less thing to worry about in the long run. If not, then all your problems are solved."

"Precisely," Petrovsky nodded. "I must say I am impressed: the adjutants have killed far too many of my soldiers. The fact that you successfully dealt with them is quite an accomplishment."

"Well, I must admit I admire your restraint, Petrovsky," Shepard said ruefully. "By all accounts, you could have come down a lot harder on the civilian populace. It's too bad you're on the Illusive Man's side, Petrovsky."

"I'm on humanity's side. You're the ones trying to start a war—for the glory of Aria."

"Actually," Shepard corrected, "we're trying to depose an illegal occupation and free the people of Omega—humans and non-humans alike."

"I will concede that you believe that, Shepard, even if some of your… colleagues do not. Call it what you will. But now it's over."

Aria's hands flexed. If Petrovsky was here in the flesh, I had no doubt that she'd be throttling him at this very moment. "This isn't over until your next of kin can't identify you," she hissed.

Petrovsky gave a patient sigh. "I love your bravado, but have the sense to know when you're beaten. Look around: you've been isolated and neutralized. I can leave you here until you surrender… or until you starve to death and rot. You might as well give up, Aria. End this bloodshed. For everyone's sake."

"Never!" Aria snarled.

Whirling around, she stalked towards the force fields. "Aria," Shepard said warily, "what are you thinking?"

"I'm not going out like this!" Aria insisted.

"Aria, don't!" Nyreen cried out.

But she was too late.

I watched in shock, and no small bit of horror, as Aria plunged her hands into the force field. Part of me expected her to go up in flames. If nothing else, I expected her hands to be vaporized.

Instead, I saw the tell-tale glow of biotics shimmer over her body—and a violent roil of biotic energy rippling out from her hands. It looked like she was trying to ... to tear open a hole in the force field by biotic might and sheer force of will.

"What the hell is she trying to do?" Petrovsky demanded.

"You essentially asked her to sit down and roll over," Shepard quipped. "Guess she didn't like that idea."

"Make her stop," Petrovsky insisted.

Shepard gave him an incredulous look, but gamely turned towards Aria. "Aria. Stop. Please."

Aria let out a groan, but redoubled her efforts. As I watched, an actual honest-to-gosh hole appeared in the force field. It was only a foot wide and a couple feet tall, but it was definitely a hole.

"Well, I tried," Shepard shrugged.

"Damn it, Aria," Petrovsky cursed with what sounded like actual regret in his voice. "You're forcing my hand. We'll do it your way then."

With that, his holographic image shimmered away. I watched as the other drone flew away... and froze as a Rampart mech walked through the force field on the other side. Followed by another. And another. "Shepard! Nyreen! Mechs!" I yelled.

As Aria continued her struggle, the three of us found cover and opened fire. Shepard launched a fireball at one mech, then began sniping another. I sent an EMP to excite the plasma into a fiery explosion, then took out the mech with a headshot. Seeing that Shepard had finished the second mech off at more or less the same time, I looked around for the third.

While Shepard and I were occupied, the third mech had evidently decided to sneak around to the right and deal with Aria. Nyreen had intercepted it, judging by the flames that licked at its chassis. Raising my sniper rifle, I focused on its head and squeezed the trigger. One shot. One kill.

Shepard suddenly activated his cloak and darted to the left. A moment later, the sound of a sniper rifle rang out. "They're trying to flank us!" Shepard shouted. "Garrus, cover the right. I'll take this side. Nyreen, keep an eye on the centre in case any mech decides to go for the direct approach."

Moving to my designated area, I saw a mech enter my line of sight. I softened it up with my particle rifle before switching to my sniper rifle for the kill shot. I heard more than saw Shepard deal with another mech. As for Nyreen, she targeted a mech with another round of plasma before finishing it off with copious amounts of gunfire.

A flicker of movement overhead caught my eye. "Overhead," I yelled, snapping off a shot. It missed, but the shot was enough to force the mech down to the ground. Two more mechs came into view, clearly sensing that they might have more luck if they pressed the attack together. Icons suddenly lit up on my HUD as Shepard, realizing what was going on, assigned targets for each of us. Twin streams of plasma roared out from Shepard and Nyreen, engulfing the mechs in flame. I launched another EMP before reloading my sniper rifle and going back into the fray. When the dust settled, all three of us had earned another kill.

Shepard quickly reloaded his sniper rifle before running off to the left. Three shots rang out in quick succession, followed by the telltale flare of another fireball. Then Shepard came running back, reloading yet again. "Two more down, three on my heels," he shouted.

Spotting one of the mechs in pursuit, I brought it to a halt with a concussive round. One more shot finished it off. Nyreen and Shepard ganged up on another mech, with Nyreen's bullet dropping it for the count. The last mech was actually crouching down behind cover, believe it or not. I didn't realize it until I almost tripped over its metal foot. At such close range, I couldn't possibly miss.

Three more mechs came from the left. Three more mechs went down. One showed up on the right, for variety's sake if nothing else. Then another trio of mechs arrived from the left. They were definitely getting aggressive. More to the point, it was obvious who their primary target was. The fact that they ignored us entirely and went straight for Aria made that abundantly clear. They only retreated after Shepard and I shot one of them in the back. Of course, we took that opportunity to set them on fire and riddle their bodies with more bullets.

From there, the battlefield gradually descended into chaos. More and more, we weren't able to finish off our target. Instead we had to settle for driving them back, breaking off our attack because we had to reload or because a more pressing threat to Aria's safety had presented itself. It was clear that something had to change.

"Nyreen!" Shepard yelled, having come to the same conclusion. "Cover Aria. Garrus and I will handle the mechs."

A sound plan. Nyreen's biotics were well suited to protecting Aria, especially when she could focus solely on defence. Shepard and I, on the other hand, had fought alongside each other for years now. We could anticipate each other's movements and complement each other's attacks in a way Nyreen simply could not. Besides, each of us had a sniper rifle suited to keeping the mechs at bay.

Shepard and I racked up another two kills and damaged several more mechs. But more kept coming. Nyreen did what she could, but several shots slipped through despite her best efforts. Aria was forced to divert some of her biotics to her own protective barrier, which made it harder to continue her assault on the force fields.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aria fall to one knee. Nyreen, alternating her view between Aria and the battlefield, saw the same thing. "No!" she cried out in dismay.

I could have made the same remark, but for other reasons: the mechs were starting to rain down from the upper levels, bypassing the force fields entirely. Things were definitely getting dicey.

"Garrus, cover me!"

Without thinking, I stepped forward and to the side. Switching to my particle rifle, I fired several energy blasts to keep the mechs at bay. Sprinting to Aria's side, Nyreen extended her biotic barrier around the asari with one hand while using the other to destroy two mechs with her heavy pistol. Shepard stuck with his sniper rifle, claiming two more kills himself.

"Shepard!" Aria finally gasped, "I can't hold this much longer. Go!" With a visible effort, she pushed outwards with her arm, extending the hole in the force field just large enough for one person to slip through.

"I got this, Shepard!" I chimed in. "Move!"

Shepard turned around, took everything in with one glance, ran towards the hole and dove through. Aria held out for a few more seconds before dropping her arms and slumping to the ground.

Nyreen helped Aria to her feet. "Spirits, Aria. How did you know you could do that?"

Aria pulled out her assault rifle. "I didn't," she admitted.

"Hate to interrupt," I butted in, "but the mechs are still coming. Take cover over there." I pointed at a nearby computer station. "Aria, take the left; Nyreen has the right. We gotta hold out until Shepard can shut these force fields down."

Aria immediately hit one mech with her biotics while Nyreen set another on fire. I dropped an EMP on Aria's mech to soften it up before opening up on a third mech with my sniper rifle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aria finish off her mech before helping Nyreen deal with hers. Meanwhile, two more mechs passed through the force fields. Having taken out my target, I began firing at the newcomers, scoring headshot after headshot in an attempt to destroy them before they could engage. Any elation I felt at my success was short-lived, given that more mechs were pouring in.

I don't know how long this went on. Shoot, reload. Biotics, reload. Plasma, reload. Shoot, reload. On and on and on. Somehow, I managed to keep track of the mechs that were being destroyed and who could claim credit. Each of us was racking up a fair number of kills. But we were trapped in one location with a rapidly depleting supply of ammo and no way to retreat. If Shepard couldn't bring down the force fields, our fate was sealed.

By the grace of the spirits, that's when Shepard reported in. _"I'm at the reactor,"_ Shepard's voice flowed into our ears like music. _"There's a console here that seems to handle its operation and power distribution. Standby."_

" _You can't do this, Commander,"_ Petrovsky said over the comm. My guess was he was talking to Shepard through that drone thing again. _"There's more at stake than you know. That reactor powers life support systems for dozens of wards across the station."_

Aw, crap.

" _Shut it down and thousands of people perish—humans and non-humans alike."_

" _You hearing this, Aria?"_

Aria hit another mech with her biotics before opening fire with her shotgun. Unfortunately, the mech slipped behind some pipes before her shot could connect. "Yes," she spat, "and I don't care. Shut it down!"

"Shepard, don't!" Nyreen interrupted. "Try rerouting power away from the force fields!"

" _Damn it,"_ we heard Shepard mutter. _"Hold tight down there."_

"What do you think we've been doing?" I asked, taking out another mech.

" _Slacking off,"_ came the cheeky reply. _"Okay. Let's see if I can isolate the force field emitters from the power grid."_

" _You're rerouting the power to maintain the other systems,"_ Petrovsky observed. _"Interesting."_

"Are you crazy?" Aria burst out. "We're almost spent!"

She had a point. Each of us only had a handful of thermal clips left. I only had three, given how quickly my sniper rifle burned through them. I switched to my particle rifle in an effort to save ammo. As I checked the rifle's power meter, I spotted some movement. "Nyreen, watch your flank!" I yelled.

" _This is who you're working for, Shepard. She doesn't care who gets hurt. Just like she didn't care who she left behind when she fled Omega. All she cared about was herself."_

Petrovsky had evidently decided to start playing mind games with Shepard. Normally I'd tell Shepard to ignore him and keep working, but I was a little busy trying to stay alive. Aria, on the other hand, had no such compunctions about offering her opinion: "What are you waiting for? Overload the reactor!"

Nyreen suddenly spun about with a cry before collapsing to the ground. My eyes widened. So did Aria. "Nyreen!" she cried out, dropping her assault rifle and crawling to Nyreen's side. Which left me to fend off a half dozen mechs by myself. I know I make combat look so easy and sexy, but this was going to be challenging. But what could I do?

"Aria," I shouted. As she looked over, I unclipped a pack of medi-gel from my belt, let it fall to the floor and kicked it over to her. She wordlessly scooped it up with a nod of thanks and got to work. I did the same.

" _Did you hear that? 'Overload the reactor,' she said. She'd just throw thousands of lives away without a second thought."_

"Shepard, Nyreen's down," Aria reported. "I'm stabilizing her! We're almost out of ammo. Garrus is holding the mechs off on his own, but he won't last long. You can't reroute power in time! Hit the fucking overload! Now!"

" _This shouldn't be that hard,"_ Petrovsky said _. "Maybe something inside is holding you back. Maybe deep down you're starting to think the galaxy might be better off without her. She's never going to learn. She'll never change. Even if you win, Omega loses."_

There was a tense, nerve-wracking pause, broken up only by the persistent barks of gunfire.

" _Sorry,"_ Shepard replied. _"Missed that last part. Got a little distracted rerouting the power."_

The reactor suddenly shook. Gusts of steam burst out, starting from an exhaust port near the top and moving its way down. As I watched, the force fields flared with a final surge of crimson light before slowly fading away. "Aria, grab Nyreen and let's get out of here," I barked. "I'll cover you."

We were just about to retreat when Shepard contacted us. _"Aria, Garrus; report."_

"We're fine," I replied. "Nyreen's stabilized."

"More than stabilized," Nyreen corrected. "Aria gave me some medi-gel. I'm fine now."

Well, it was _my_ medi-gel, but whatever. There was something a little more important that Shepard should know. "Shepard, we still have six mechs dogging us."

 _"I'll distract them. Be ready to move."_

He didn't make us wait long. The sound of a submachine gun on full auto ripped through the air as Shepard sprayed the mechs with bullets. More to draw their attention than to deal any real damage, of course. Still... "Aria, Nyreen; throw biotics and plasma at the closest mechs, then let's move."

"Got it," they said in unison.

As soon as they were finished, Aria and I wrapped one of Nyreen's arms around our shoulders and ran like hell, ignoring Nyreen's protests that she was fine. The loud explosion that rang out told me that Shepard had deployed some plasma of his own. A second explosion suggested that maybe he tossed a grenade.

Then he caught up with us. "Garrus; ladies," he greeted us, turning on the spot and firing his sniper rifle. Looking back, I saw a mech lose its head and collapse, joining two more mechs on the ground. Damn, he'd taken the lead in kills again. But I was sure I'd have plenty of opportunities to even the score.

Because the war to retake Omega had officially kicked into high gear.


	6. Viva La Revolution

**Chapter 6: Viva La Revolution**

Never let it be said that I don't know how to have a good time.

True, examples of good times include running around with a pyromaniac/kleptomaniac, my ex and a crime lord while a pack of homicidal mechs try to kill me. And yeah, if I had a therapist, he or she would likely have a lot to say. But I stand by my statement, nonetheless.

Speaking of good times, Aria finished off the two closest mechs with a single biotic blow. Nyreen closed the door and engaged the locks before any more mechs could barge on through. Shepard looked at the three of us. "You okay?"

"Despite your best efforts to kill me," Aria growled, ejecting the spent thermal clip from her shotgun and loading a new one. "Your soft heart almost cost me everything."

Specifically, we had been trying to shut down the Cerberus force fields impeding our progress throughout Omega by making our way to the reactor. Unbeknownst to us, General Petrovsky, leader of the Cerberus occupation, had anticipated this plan and did what he could to lure us into a trap. While Aria, Nyreen and I had held off the welcoming party, Shepard had escaped—only to be faced with the choice of shutting down the reactor outright and killing life support... or take the time to reroute power from the force fields and hope we could hold out long enough. He chose the latter. We almost died. Aria was not amused.

Neither was Shepard. "Your lack of planning almost cost _us_ everything," he retorted.

"Quiet, Aria," Nyreen said. "Shepard saved us without sacrificing innocent lives."

"Bottom line: his gamble paid off," I chimed in for good measure. "Which is good, considering we'll need all the hands we can get."

Maybe Aria saw the error of her ways. More likely she realized that she was outnumbered. "I suppose," she relented with her usual grace. "Whatever."

She cast her eye on Nyreen. "You fought bravely against those mechs in there, Nyreen. Very impressive."

"But?" Nyreen prompted.

"Why can't you bring that same grit when adjutants attack? It's pathetic. You tense up at the mere mention of those abominations."

She had a point, blunt as she might be. Our route to the reactor had taken us through the mines, which had been sealed off to quarantine a handful of adjutants. Nyreen had completely frozen up during each of those fights. To be frank, only the generosity of the spirits had prevented her from becoming a liability. But then, I hadn't fought through the initial Cerberus attacks. I hadn't encountered the adjutants or seen what they could do. Neither had Shepard.

Aria had, however. So you'd think that she might have offered a little sympathy or understanding. But sympathy and understanding weren't exactly Aria's shining character traits. Not like some people.

"Lay off," Shepard intervened. "Nyreen's been through a lot, but she still fought alongside you. She had your back when you needed it most."

"I'm trying to help her, Shepard," Aria said. "Call it tough love."

"Find another way," Shepard insisted.

"Maybe later," she replied, turning away and heading for the door. "The war's starting. I don't mean to miss it."

Nyreen put a hand on Shepard's arm, forestalling anything he might have said. "She's never been big on thank yous."

"No, I suppose not," he sighed.

"Come on," I said. "We can't let her have all the fun."

Wordlessly, the three of us followed Aria.

* * *

Now that the force fields around the reactor were down, we could take a more direct route to the streets of Omega. More importantly, we only had to take a single elevator instead of multiple stairs, meandering catwalks and a never-ending series of elevators that only went up or down a couple levels.

During the elevator ride, Nyreen checked the feed on her omni-tool. "Getting reports from the Talons. All force fields down. Civilians taking to the streets in droves. Cerberus pulling back."

"That won't last," Shepard frowned.

"The people don't have the training to go up against Cerberus front lines," Nyreen fretted. "They'll be wiped out."

Aria leaned against the elevator walls casually. "Civilian casualties can't be avoided. You'll have to accept this."

"Is that why you were willing to condemn so many lives earlier?" I snorted. "'Cuz they were gonna die anyway?"

"Say what you will, Aria," Nyreen seethed. "I won't allow senseless deaths."

"We've got enough challenges without civilians clogging the fire-lanes," Shepard agreed. "Do what you can to get them out of the way so the rest of us can engage Cerberus."

"Of course, Commander," Nyreen said, clearly delighted to have someone on her side. Aria rolled her eyes but said nothing.

" _Aria? Bray here."_

"Report."

" _My team is scouting the maintenance tunnels. We've encountered Cerberus forces escorting engineers. They're moving gear. Looks like they're setting explosives to the station's central support columns."_

Aria hurried over to the elevator panel. "Bray, engage! Delay them as long as you can. We're coming."

" _Got it. Roll out, people!"_

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"If they detonate the main column, they'll cut off the way to Afterlife! The Talon offensive will be stopped cold."

"Which gives Petrovsky time to devise a counter-attack," I said. "Or call the Illusive Man for reinforcements. Or both."

"So we split up," Shepard suggested.

"Exactly," Aria nodded. "Nyreen, lead the frontal assault. Shepard, Garrus and I will meet you in the markets after we've taken care of those bombs."

I'd have preferred a more even split, but Aria's plan made sense. Nyreen would have the entire fighting force of the Talons behind her. She knew how they would operate and vice versa. Anyone else would be a fish out of water. As for the Cerberus engineers, we needed a small mobile team that knew each other's moves and could punch well above our weight. Aria, Shepard and I were that team.

"Of course, Aria," Nyreen said, "but don't count on me building your memorial if you get yourself killed. I'll be a little busy mourning Shepard and Garrus here."

"Gee, thanks," I managed.

Aria shot Nyreen a fierce smile. "I love it when you're feisty."

Nyreen smiled back, then glanced at the elevator readouts. "This is your stop," she said. "Get ready."

The elevator slowed to a stop. Nyreen opened the doors. And the rest of us charged out.

* * *

"The only route to the central column is through the tunnels," Aria told us as the elevator doors closed.

Which tunnels was made clear almost immediately by the distant sounds of gunfire. Along with an odd roaring sound. "Look out!" we heard Bray shout. "Don't let them through!"

We rounded the corner and ran up a flight of stairs, just in time to see a trio of Rampart mechs enter the room up ahead. Shepard fired a shot from his sniper rifle, but missed. I didn't.

"Aria's here!" Bray yelled. A chorus of cheers rang out.

"Find cover and watch our backs!" I yelled back.

"Got it!"

As we rushed into the room, I realized why I heard the roar earlier: there was water pouring down the wall in several locations. As I scanned the room for threats, I saw equipment and machinery similar to the kind you'd find in hydroelectric facilities—like the one in my hometown on Palaven, before the Reapers invaded. There were metal walkways running along either side of the room, with additional catwalks acting as bridges to connect each side. Below the catwalks, an artificial river flowed, its tranquil pace a sharp contrast to the conflict seething around it.

Aria hurled a sphere of biotics at one mech while Shepard set another on fire. I raised my arm and deployed an EMP, carefully aiming so the field set off both Aria's and Shepard's attacks. After the two explosions rang out, it was easy for each of us to claim a kill. That made it 73 kills for Shepard, 69 for me, 42 for Aria and 27 for Nyreen.

Not to be outdone, Bray and his posse joined the fight. They caused enough mayhem for another pair of mechs to break off their assault and turn towards them—which meant Shepard and I got to shoot them in the back. Oh well.

By that point, all of the mechs had been reduced to twitching scrap heaps. Seeing that, one of the Cerberus troopers got on the comm. "Send reinforcements to the maintenance tunnels!" he yelled. For his trouble, Aria unfurled a biotic whip, snapped it around his neck and yanked him towards her. While she amused herself, I fried a Centurion's shields before proceeding to shoot him in the head. Shepard took out a shield pylon, then hastily ducked down as a bullet whistled overhead.

"Snipers in the tunnels!" Bray warned.

"Guess the reinforcements arrived!" I said.

Shepard found another mech, set it on fire and blew its head off. Then he began scanning for the snipers. Finding one, he took out her shields with one shot. Before he could pull the trigger again, Aria hit her with a biotic blast, then riddled her body with bullets. Shepard promptly moved on to a nearby Centurion but wasn't fast enough, as my EMP and sniper round beat him to the punch. Undaunted, he began pelting a pair of mechs with fireballs and sniper rounds. Aria pitched in with her biotics once she had a clear line of sight, but it was Shepard's shots that took them out.

"Cut them off!" another assault trooper urged. "Take out the catwalk!"

Right. No pressure.

Spotting another Centurion, I dealt with him the same way I dealt with the last two. Shepard scanned the battlefield. "Clear," he eventually announced. "Everyone reload and advance on my position."

Aria and her goons did just that. I reloaded my weapons, stocked up on thermal clips, then doubled back for a sniper rifle mod and a med-kit I'd spotted earlier. Yes, I'm an enabler. Don't judge. Besides, you didn't see the way Shepard's face lit up when I handed over the loot.

Once everyone was ready, we started to move out. Naturally, that's when the catwalk blew up. "Crap!" I cursed. I looked at the other catwalks, but none of them extended to where we wanted to go. "Now what?"

"We could swim across," Shepard suggested.

"You remember what I said about turians and swimming, right?"

"As much as I'd enjoy watching you embarrass yourself," Aria drawled, "we can extend the dam in the control room instead. That should get us across. But Cerberus doesn't know that, so they'll think we'll head for one of the other tunnels. Bray, get in touch with the other teams and tell them to press the attack. They need to convince Cerberus to focus on the other routes to the central column."

"Got it," Bray nodded.

"After that, set up fortifications and hold this position. The last thing we need is for Cerberus to sneak up on us from behind."

While Bray got on the comm, Shepard went into the control room. Following Aria's instructions, he extended the dam with the push of a button. "That was easy," he remarked. "We weren't slowed down at all."

"Which is why I gave Bray his orders," Aria replied.

We were heading across the dam when the comm came to life again. _"Nyreen here. We've engaged Cerberus and cleared our first target. ETA to the Gozu district is on track."_

"Excellent," Aria said.

Shepard disappeared around a stack of crates. No doubt he was finding a datapad to download. So it was left to me to ask where we were going next.

"Through there," she replied, tilting her head towards a nearby door.

Before we departed, Shepard just had to head down a ladder. Now that the dam had been extended, it seemed that part of the 'river' had been drained. "Where are you going?" I asked, following him down.

"Spotted something."

He took a step forward, stopped and pointed.

"Is that my couch?" Aria asked in disbelief.

"Looks like," I said. Not sure how good it would be after spending spirits know how long underwater, but it was definitely her couch. Which meant a certain elcor was about to become very happy.

Shepard got on the comm to deliver the good news. "Harrot, found what you wanted. Sending you the coordinates now." He glanced over at Aria. "When Harrot brings you the couch and says he 'discovered' it, act surprised."

"I'll try," she said dryly.

"And grateful."

"We'll see."

"I don't suppose you want to pay me a finder's fee."

"Don't push your luck."

Once they got bored of the banter, we left through the door Aria had noted. We waited for Shepard to grab one last thermal clip, a few grenades that someone left lying about, and yet another batch of medi-gel. Then we waited for Shepard to bypass a door marked 'Central Support.'

As soon as the door slid open, we went through, guns at the ready. The corridor went to the left, straight into two Guardians. "Lock them down!" one of them shouted. "Don't let them through!"

Raising my sniper rifle, I aimed at the left Guardian's eye—visible through the slot in his shield—and fired. A spray of blood and brains exited his head as my bullet flew through the slot, through his head and out the other side. Shepard did the same. And then we did the same thing again with the next pair of Guardians.

Spotting a side room, Shepard opened it to make sure there weren't any hostiles hiding inside. However, the only thing waiting for him was a datapad. Aria rolled her eyes while he downloaded its contents. "Shepard, we need to get to the central column before Cerberus sets off those bombs."

"I'm going, I'm going," Shepard reassured her.

True to his word, Shepard left the room and went down to the end of the corridor. Another door marked 'Central Support' was locked. Shepard bypassed the mechanism within five seconds.

Once the door opened, we peered down the corridor. According to the helpful neon sign, 'Primary Ventilation' was just ahead. Unfortunately, the ceiling above had caved in, half-burying the door. Luckily, there was a maintenance tunnel on the side, angling down like a playground slide. So we indulged our inner child—guns and all—and slid down.

When we reached the bottom, we spotted another tunnel going up. It was just as steep—and slippery—as the tunnel we'd just taken to get down. To the left was a large rotating fan that was taller than any of us with a control switch nearby. Shepard hit the control, having decided that squeezing through the fan blades was a better route to take.

As the fan slowed down, Nyreen contacted us. _"Heads up: we're hitting less resistance. I think they're sending forces your way!"_

"Copy that," Shepard replied. Once the fan came to a stop, we slipped through, entering a large room filled with equipment... and company.

Shepard slipped into cover, conveniently pilfering a med-kit along the way, cloaked and took out an assault trooper with a headshot. Not to be outdone, I did the same with another trooper, then dropped an EMP on a combat engineer. Aria kicked a grenade, tossed by some unseen Cerberus schmuck, out of harm's way before hurling a biotic blast at the engineer. While she finished him off, I took out another assault trooper.

"Over there!" Aria hollered, pointing at the far wall. "We can get to the bomb controls once the access panels are open!"

"Clear the room, then converge on that location," Shepard ordered.

We quickly made sure that there weren't any Cerberus goons hiding underneath the consoles and restocked on thermal clips before meeting up again at the access panel controls. Shepard reached for a nearby keyboard and entered in some commands. As he typed, a holographic display revealed four columns in blue—and four access panels in red. The access panels began blinking with a yellow icon. "Got it," Shepard said.

Around us, I could hear a series of hissing noises as the access panels opened up.

Then the spirits decided that we'd had it too easy thus far.

 _"Countdown initiated,"_ the computer told us.

"Those bombs just went live!" Aria realized.

Shepard's fingers flew over the console before he gave up and shook his head. "Console's locked. We'll have to manually disable them!"

Of course, that's when the first wave of Cerberus goons arrived.

"Take care of the bombs, Shepard," Aria urged. "We'll handle Cerberus."

Smart move. Shepard had his tactical cloak to help him get around, so he was ideally suited to scampering around the battlefield. Aria had a vested interest in unleashing her wrath on Cerberus. And I wouldn't mind the chance to show everyone how a real sniper gets things done. To start things off, I raised my sniper rifle and took out an assault trooper.

 _"Detonation sequence confirmed,"_ the VI announced. _"ETA: five minutes."_

Shepard ran off to the left. I helped clear the way for him by shooting another assault trooper in the head. He disappeared behind a column. I heard a shot, followed by a bright flash. A second later, he came back, running away from a Rampart mech that he'd set on fire. "Aria, ten o'clock," I said.

She promptly spun on her heel, assessed the situation and raised her arm. An indigo stream of biotic energy lanced out from the palm of her hand, striking the mech and igniting the plasma. Then she raised her shotgun and fired.

Now that the coast was clear, Shepard ran back to the column and ducked down. Switching to my particle rifle, I laid down covering fire while Shepard disarmed the bomb.

"One down, three to go!" he told us a couple seconds later. He popped up briefly before engaging his cloak. A shot rang out. Shepard reappeared as another mech collapsed.

Aria and I laid down cover fire while he ran for the next bomb. Her biotics slammed into a mech before my EMP detonated. Despite our efforts, the mech, along with a lone assault trooper, managed to score several hits against Shepard. With an impressive single-mindedness, he ignored his rapidly waning shields and focused on disarming the bomb. "Two more," he said. As Aria and I finally took down the mech and trooper, he added "What, you couldn't take them out earlier?"

"That's gratitude for you," I replied as he bolted for the third bomb. "Maybe I'll let them get you next time."

"Then who'll pull your ass out of the fire?" Shepard asked, sliding to a stop and beginning his work.

"Less jokes, more shooting," Aria interrupted.

To our surprise, the pressure had lightened up. There was only one mech in the immediate area, and that bucket of bolts didn't have a clear shot on Shepard… or any of us, for that matter. So Shepard was able to disarm the bomb while his shields regenerated. "Just one to go!" he yelled.

As he got up, he spotted the mech and launched a fireball. Aria joined in with her biotics, but I was the one who scored the kill.

" _Four minutes,"_ the computer announced.

Really? That was all the time that had passed? Just one minute? Seemed longer. "Aria, head to the other side of the column," I ordered, pointing at the location of the last bomb. "I'll cover this side. Shepard, we'll make sure you're not disturbed."

Either Cerberus was getting cold feet or they were running out of guys to throw at us. Once again, the only threat we faced was a single Rampart mech. It raised its shields and hunkered down as Aria and I opened up on it. Without any other threats to divide our attention, Shepard had ample opportunity to disarm the bomb. "Got 'em all!" he said. "Let's clear the room."

"Music to my ears," I crowed.

Shepard and Aria took out an automated turret—he got the kill—while I dealt with the mech. Looking ahead, I spotted a mixed team of Cerberus soldiers and mechs heading our way and deployed an EMP. The sparks were still fading when Shepard and I took out the two lead hostiles—a pair of Centurions—while Aria ripped another mech to shreds with her biotics.

Motioning for me to stay where I was, Shepard hurried forward. I saw the telltale flash of light that accompanied an EMP. Then I heard the sound of a sniper rifle going off. "We're clear!" Shepard called out a moment later.

"This way, Shepard," Aria urged, already heading for the exit.

I grabbed a few spare thermal clips before joining Aria. We waited a few seconds longer for Shepard, who was probably doing the same. When he wasn't clearing the rest of the room. Or emptying a few med-kits.

Aria got on the comm once Shepard finally deigned to grace us with his presence. "Nyreen, the bombs are disarmed. Things are under control here. What's your situation?"

" _We're advancing through the Gozu district."_

She fired several times, based on the proximity of the shots. _"Move forward! Keep that flank covered!"_ she told an unseen soldier.

" _Yes, boss!"_ we heard. A ripple of gunfire came over the comm, suggesting some kind of crossfire.

" _We're holding our own,"_ Nyreen continued, _"but Cerberus has started targeting the civilians. Reports of casualties are coming in from all sectors."_

"Save those you can," Aria ordered, glancing at me and Shepard, "and head for the rendezvous point. We'll meet you there."

" _We'll do what we can. Nyreen out."_

"So how exactly do we get to Afterlife from here?" Shepard asked.

"I'm thinking the straightforward approach… for a change."

Before Shepard and I could ask if she was joking, her entire body flared with brilliant blue light. Aria concentrated all that energy into a single sphere of energy, which she hurled at one of the giant ventilation fans in the room. With a burst of sparks, the fan shuddered to a stop. Brutal, but effective.

Without a word, we silently passed between the fan blades to the door beyond. Shepard bypassed the lock and we went on through.

* * *

We had only gone up one ladder when we heard gunfire. "Cerberus," Shepard declared, pausing to pick up a shotgun mod before climbing the next ladder.

"How do you know that?" Aria asked. "Could be the Talons…" She broke off as a Cerberus soldier crashed through a window above and plummeted past us to the floor below. "Never mind," she finished.

Having reached another catwalk, the three of us went left. That wound up being a dead end, but we came across yet another med-kit and some salvage, so I'm sure Shepard didn't consider it a complete waste of time. We were just retracing our steps when we heard some Cerberus goon shout "The adjutant is out!"

Aw, crap.

Exchanging worried glances, we picked up the pace, heading down the catwalk and up the ladder in record time. "Shoot! Shoot!" we heard the goon yell through a door. Judging by the amount of gunfire, his compatriots were enthusiastically following his orders.

"Everyone ready?" Shepard asked.

"Let's do this already," Aria urged.

Her impatience wasn't completely unfounded. Normally I'd be the first to suggest taking my time and letting the two hostile forces soften each other up. But given how adjutants reportedly turned their victims into copies of themselves, that might not be the best strategy.

We entered a hallway with a large window on the far side, which gave us a perfect view of the adjutant pouncing on a hapless Cerberus soldier while his partners sprayed it down with gunfire. "Damn it," Aria muttered. "Ahz, there are adjutants here. Track our progress and seal the rooms behind us."

Having dispatched his prey, the adjutant grabbed the next goon and threw him into the window with enough force to snap his neck and create a spider web of cracks. The three of us raised our weapons and braced ourselves for an attack. Rather than smash its way through the glass, though, the adjutant chose to attack the remaining Cerberus goon.

" _Yes, Aria."_

Turning away from the window, we followed the hallway to another door, which led us to the upper level of a large room. In the distance, we could hear a video log stuck in a loop: _"…with the civilian population contained, we should be ready to… with the civilian population contained, we should be ready to… with the civilian population contained, we should be ready to…"_

We quickly cleared the upper level, finding nothing except a dead body draped over the rail and a datapad full of credits, before descending a ramp to the lower level. There, we found another body, another datapad of credits… and a computer that was stubbornly trying to play the video log we'd been hearing for the past minute. From the look of things, some kind of glitch had it in a playback loop.

After a few clicks, Shepard managed to restart the video player. There were three video logs cued up. Checking the timestamps, Shepard started the first log. It began with various computer terminals around an empty cylindrical tank that was backlit with blue lights. As we watched, one human was working at a terminal while another walked off the screen. _"The first generation adjutants have been transferred from the containment area and are being outfitted with the implants,"_ we heard someone say in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. _"The previous batches have been processed and moved to the storage area."_

"Are they saying what I think they're saying?" I groaned.

Shepard rubbed his eyes. "Looks that way. Why am I not surprised?"

Even Aria looked disturbed, which was saying something. "Looks like there's a couple more logs," she said. "Play the next one."

The video began from the same angle. This time, there were three or four people working around the tank… which now held a human body. _"We can now control when and where the adjutants convert their victims,"_ the same voice said with the measured tone you'd hear in a standard educational vid _. "Initial testing on various species provides ample proof the virus can adapt flawlessly, regardless of the host used."_

Without waiting for a prompt, Shepard started the third log. It began from a different angle from the first two logs. What was more disturbing was the body inside the tank. It looked larger… and inhuman. Four humans, two in Cerberus hardsuits, stood around the tank. None of them looked worried or concerned.

" _With the civilian population contained, we should be ready to initiate the next phase of the project on schedule,"_ a voice said _. "Before host conversion, we should begin the process of fusing the control implants to the subject's nervous system. With the current success ratio, we project being able to surpass demand by 300 percent."_

"Those… idiots," Aria seethed. "They were experimenting on adjutants. Trying to build an army of those things."

"Cerberus is nothing if not consistent," I growled. "They've been doing this kind of thing all across the galaxy. With husks. And Thorians. And rachni. And geth. Why should they stop now?"

"It explains the adjutants we saw earlier," Shepard said as we passed through a door. "Nyreen said they killed their victims instead of converting them. Now we know why."

Spotting a datapad, I picked it up and skimmed its contents before showing Shepard the first e-mail.

 _From: Lt. Tolsin  
To: Cerberus personnel_

 _Subject: High-Priority Memo_

 _Test adjutants have escaped. They are to be rounded up and returned to Containment as soon as possible. Damage is to be avoided at all costs under penalty of severe combat-pay deductions._

"'Damage is to be avoided at all costs under penalty of severe combat-pay deductions'," Shepard quoted incredulously. A disgusted look swept over his face. "Of course. Because you should totally be worried about the bottom line when all hell breaks loose."

"Evidently someone felt the same," I said, bringing his attention to the second e-mail.

 _From: General Petrovsky  
To: Cerberus personnel_

 _Subject: Re: High-Priority Memo_

 _Disregard previous instructions. All test adjutants are to be transferred to Central HQ's holding area posthaste. Preservation of the specimens is preferred, but not—I repeat_ not _—at the expense of Cerberus personnel or the civilian population. Lethal force is authorized if the safety of the latter is put at risk._

"So that's why they wound up in the mines," I said.

"Yep," Shepard nodded. "'Cuz Petrovsky didn't want to risk any more lives than he had to."

"Supposedly," I cautioned.

"Supposedly," Shepard agreed.

"If we're done," Aria prompted impatiently, "maybe we can get moving. It'll take more time to pass through this area. Thanks to the extra security, the doors here only open one at a time."

"Makes sense," Shepard said, "considering what they had locked up in here."

"Unlock the door and let's get out of here," Aria insisted.

As soon as Shepard worked his magic, we headed down another hallway. It was relatively well-lit and clean, offering a few seconds of peace and quiet. All too soon, though, that ended as the sound of gunfire rose.

When we reached the end of the hallway, we looked through another window and saw a firefight raging. Aria nodded towards a doorway on the far side of the room. "That doorway leads to the Gozu district."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I asked.

* * *

Our first steps into the Gozu district were almost our last.

As the doors opened, a grenade bounced towards us. If it wasn't for a brave salarian who threw himself on the grenade, it could have been the end of us. Instead, his sacrifice gave me the time to take out the assault trooper who'd thrown the explosive while Shepard and Aria found cover.

Just as I ran from the doorway to join them, an Atlas landed with a thunderous crash. Shepard immediately snapped off an EMP before pulling out his submachine gun. Once Aria had launched her biotics, I deployed an EMP of my own. "Shepard, Aria; focus on the Atlas. I'll keep any other hostiles occupied."

While the two of them began draining the Atlas's shields with bursts of automatic fire, I began sweeping the area for threats. I briefly got a bead on another assault trooper, but he went behind a stack of crates before I could pull the trigger. So I waited patiently, keeping one eye on where he was likely to reappear and another eye on the Atlas. Sure enough, the trooper came from the other side of the crates… and right into my sights. One shot, one kill.

By that point, the Atlas had lost most of its shields. Thinking quickly, its pilot deployed some smoke grenades, hoping to regenerate the shields in the midst of the makeshift cover. Little did he know that Shepard and I had scopes on our sniper rifles that could pierce the smoke. Exchanging grins, we began firing. It took a while, but the Atlas eventually exploded. Sadly, Shepard got credit for that kill.

Meanwhile, Aria was busy exchanging pot-shots with another trooper. She finished it off just before the Atlas went boom. Not to be outdone, I dropped three assault troopers in about six seconds. Maybe five.

That meant Aria had 48 kills, Shepard had 84 and I had 87. That's right: Garrus was back on top.

Quickly sweeping the room, we restocked on thermal clips before climbing a ladder to the next level, moving along a catwalk. I was so focused on watching for hostiles that I almost missed Shepard's looting. Almost. As I recall, he grabbed another couple med-kits and some salvage before sliding down a ladder and hacking through another door.

Once we went through the door, we were faced with—wait for it—another ladder. As we began climbing, Shepard opened a comm channel. "Nyreen, it's Shepard. We've entered the Gozu district and are en route to the rendezvous point."

" _Understood."_

To my mild surprise, no one tried to ambush us on the ladder or in the following hallway. We took advantage of the opportunity to load fresh thermal clips in our weapons—and swipe a pistol mod—before opening the next door.

The first thing we saw was a crashed Cerberus shuttle. Judging by the scorch marks and the fires flickering, it had been down for a while. There was a Cerberus soldier slumped next to the hatch. Shepard checked for life-signs before swiping a datapad from his pocket and leading us to the door. He paused at a nearby pillar and stared at the view screens embedded within. The top one showed a wanted poster for Nyreen Kandros, while the bottom one had a somewhat demure picture of Aria T'Loak. I found myself squelching the desire to see my scarred face up there as well and wondered when I had become such a narcissist.

We could hear the high-pitched buzz of automatic fire before the next door even opened. "Take out the turret!" Shepard ordered, somewhat needlessly I thought.

As obvious as they may have been, an order was an order. With that in mind, I fired off an EMP. Pulling out his sniper rifle, Shepard took out a Guardian. "We're being flanked!" an exceptionally bright assault trooper realized before I made his head explode like a ripe melon.

By that point, the Cerberus forces realized they needed some cover, so one of the Centurions dropped a few smoke grenades. That had the effect of drastically limiting their field of view. Unfortunately for them, we could see them just fine. Within a minute, each of us had scored a kill. Once the smoke cleared, we concentrated our fire on the turret. Shepard blew it up with one final fireball.

After regenerating our shields and looking for useful loot—thermal clips and otherwise—we headed up a flight of stairs to another locked door, which Shepard bypassed. We were greeted by a turian sentry wearing Talon colours. "Friendlies incoming!" a Talon sentry told his buddies over the comm before turning his attention to us. "Good to see you," he greeted us. "Nyreen is waiting for you three in the markets," he told us.

"Got it," Shepard nodded. "Gimme a sitrep."

Thankfully, the turian knew that particular slang for 'situation report.' "This is one of several fallback spots Nyreen had us set up. If Cerberus gets the upper hand and the Talons need to regroup, they'll have more than one option. In the meantime, our orders are to find any civilians and get them out of harm's way."

"Not a lot of civvies here," Shepard observed.

"Most of them are in the next room. But we've only rescued a couple dozen so far. The majority of the civilian population have either taken up arms themselves or are too deep in enemy territory to extract."

I noticed the sentry hadn't mentioned the third option. Probably because some of the civvies were within earshot and didn't need to hear about any more deaths. Shepard came to the same conclusion. "Well it's a good thing you're here for them. Keep up the good work. We'll head to the markets."

"Thank you, sir. Good luck."

We made our way through the Talon outpost with Shepard blithely scooping up any salvage or loot he could find. It didn't take long before we found the rest of the civvies. They were busy listening to some batarian who'd evidently found religion:

"For the blight that is humanity stains all within its path, and the only chance at redemption lies in the Word! Repent! Repent and restore your souls to glory before it is too late! This great station has fallen, and all within shall fall with it! Bring unto me the children, that I may watch them grow to soldiers for the cause! Draw your weapons for the Word, my friends! Draw your weapons and fight, else certain doom awaits us all! Let not the lesser races steal our places within the purity! Obey the Word and repent with fire, oil and guns! Sally forth and blaze gloriously through the stars!"

"Let's move on before that guy realizes a member of the blight is behind him," Shepard murmured.

"And before that crowd becomes a mob," I added.

Turning away, we headed down a dark hallway. At the other end lay an improvised barricade of crates, behind which a trio of Talons were busy shooting. Ducking down to reload, one of them saw us. "We got this covered," he reassured us. "Go, go, go!"

We got going, but not before Shepard scanned a shotgun mod lying at their feet. Taking a left, we went down another hallway and into an elevator. Nyreen contacted us as the elevator got moving. _"Nyreen here. Something's not right."_

"Cerberus is still on my station," Aria replied. "Of course something's not right."

" _Not what I was talking about. I'm checking this out. Going radio-silent."_

"We're almost there," I said. "Wait for us and we'll check it out together." I paused. "Did you hear me, Nyreen? Nyreen? Damn it!" I cursed.

"What the hell is she doing?" Aria wondered.

"Well it looks like we're almost there," Shepard said, nodding at the indicator lights. "Once we get out of here, maybe we can get some answers."

Sure enough, the elevator came to a stop. We hurried out as soon as the doors opened, almost running over a turian Talon. And the elderly human hobbling along. And the two younger humans making sure he didn't topple over.

Looking around, we saw a sea of chaos. Men and women, elders and children, people of all known species. All milling around, fear shining bright in their eyes. The tension in the air was palpable. Behind them, another turian and a krogan—both wearing Talon colours—were keeping a nervous watch behind another makeshift barricade.

"What's going on?" Shepard barked.

"Boss found a bunch of civvies running from Cerberus. Sent them here to get away from the line of fire."

"Where's Nyreen?" Shepard barked.

"She went on ahead to look for more," the turian replied.

"Alone?" I asked.

"Look, we've got our hands full holding this area. And babysitting these guys."

"Wait," Aria said suddenly. "I know this area." She pointed at the other turian. "You. Make a hole. Now."

Motioning for the krogan to keep watch, the turian shifted a few crates aside. Aria peered down the hallway that was revealed and swore. "They came from Afterlife! She's heading there now!" Without another word, she broke into a run. Shepard and I were hot on her heels.

There's an old turian superstition, one that was drummed into me as a child despite my best efforts. When everything goes silent, when the air gets cold—that's when the spirits come. Not the peaceful, benevolent, helpful spirits, though, but the dark ones. The violent ones. The heralds of death…

The air felt cold. I felt myself shiver. Shaking my head as if to deny the inevitable, I picked up the pace, slamming my feet against the pavement. Anything to make some noise. To drown out the silence.

And then a high-pitched shriek rang out, shattering the silence for a split second before turning into a wet, bloody gurgle. The sound of death…

We burst into the main promenade of Omega. Up ahead, in the distance, lay Afterlife. We could see a human and two batarians frantically firing their weapons, fighting for their lives. It didn't take long to see what they were shooting at—a trio of adjutants stalked towards them, moving slowly. Methodically. Inexorably. With a roar, one of the adjutants pounced on a batarian, batting away his gun before bending down and tearing his heart from his chest.

Then a shot hit its pale hide. And another. And another.

Nyreen moved towards it, grimly firing her pistol. Slowly, the adjutant rose up, its eyes blazing with unholy light and slowly moved towards her. The other adjutants caught up, having dispatched the other two civvies. From another door, three more adjutants joined the hunt.

Aria, Shepard and I broke into a sprint. Six-on-one odds weren't great at the best of times. This wasn't the best of times. If we didn't get there…

The six adjutants spread out, cutting off Nyreen's avenues of retreat one by one. Soon, she had nowhere left to go. She lunged down and grabbed something from a dead Cerberus goon, dancing back as one of the adjutants swiped at her. Throwing it down at her feet, she summoned her biotics. A shimmering blue field sprang to life, surrounding her…

…

…and the adjutants.

She looked up at me.

Our eyes met.

Over the pounding of my heart, I heard the rapidly increasing beeping of a timer.

Nyreen and the adjutants disappeared in a maelstrom of fire and smoke.

…

Spirits, no…


	7. Pyrrhic Victory

**Chapter 7: Pyrrhic Victory**

Nyreen was dead. She had just died, right before my eyes.

Some humans believe the grieving process can be divided into five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Well I definitely went through the first stage. I stared at the biotic dome flickering before me for spirits know how long. Sure, she had tossed down what looked more and more like a bandolier of armed grenades. Sure, in that confined space, the trauma caused by all those grenades going off would have killed her—even if the fire did not. But somehow, I wrapped myself in denial, clinging to the slim, impossible hope that she would stroll out of the smoke with a smirk on her face.

The dome flickered again. And again.

And then it died.

The newly freed smoke spread out and dissipated. I ran forward, Aria and Shepard hot on my heels. We slowed down as we saw the bodies. Burned—blackened, really—to a crisp. Twisted. All of them. Including the one at the centre.

I don't know how long I stood there, staring in shock before I realized I was feeling… regret. Regret that I hadn't had the chance to confess my role in reporting her status as a biotic to the Hierarchy. Regret that I had never apologized for condemning her to spend the rest of her military career in the Cabals, forcing her to go rogue, dooming her to a life of wandering throughout the stars until she wound up on Omega. Regret that all the things I meant to say and should have said would have to stay unspoken.

Then I felt a sense of loss. And pain. So many people had died during the last year or so. So many people who didn't have to lose their lives. Better people. It wasn't right that they should die while schmucks like me lived on. But this wasn't just a generic sense of people we were talking about. This was Nyreen. A former soldier. A former comrade-in-arms. A former lover. She was gone now. I felt her loss—and with it, so much pain. I almost keeled over as the loss and pain hit me like a blade plunging into my gizzard. It hurt! It hurt _so much_!

And from that pain came anger. An errant spark deep down in my core ignited into an inferno of burning rage. I gave into that anger and let myself be consumed by the overriding need for vengeance.

Apparently I wasn't the only one. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aria's eyes narrow. Her hands clenched into fists. Her body erupted into a blinding blaze of biotic fury. "That's it!" she snarled at the Cerberus goons standing before us. "Tell your boss I'm coming for him!"

She didn't know it but right then, in that moment, she was singing my song.

Summoning a whip of biotic energy, she wrapped it around the closest hostile and yanked him off his feet. While he was still flying through the air, she emptied her shotgun into another. Turning her attention back to the first hostile, she struck him with her whip, over and over again, until his face was a charred, bloody pulp.

Dimly, as if from a distance, I thought I heard Shepard say something. It was hard to tell, what with the blood pounding in my ears. And the sound of my sniper rifle as I shot two hostiles of my own. I felt a grim satisfaction watching their heads explode like overripe fruit.

The last Cerberus goon in the area, a Centurion, saw what had happened to his men. Turning tail, he tried to flee. I fried his shields before raising my sniper rifle. After a moment's thought, I adjusted my aim and fired. Technically, it was a bad shot as it only took out his knee. But then, I didn't want a clean kill. Not this time. Instead, I moved towards him and kicked his weapon away. "Aria?" I prompted.

Without a second's hesitation, she swooped towards him. Summoning her biotics, she planted her hands on either side of his head and squeezed. The Centurion's helmet—and head—resisted the biotic force momentarily before caving in with a wet spurt.

Rising to her feet, gore dripping from her face, Aria moved towards Afterlife—walking at first, then a slow jog, before finally breaking into a sprint. The doors slid open, as if sensing her towering rage.

Three more Cerberus hostiles lay waiting in the corridor. They fired as one, hammering her barriers at point-blank range. I could sense their desperation in their body posture and rate of firing, their certainty that they had a narrow window of opportunity to take her down before it was too late. Aria's charge slowed in the face of their onslaught. Then she came to a stop. The boom of her shotgun was drowned out by the barrage of gunfire pouring into her barriers. I saw her drop to one knee. Seeing as how she was being overwhelmed, I raised my sniper rifle—

"Enough!" she howled. Reaching deep within herself, she tapped into some inner reservoir of fury and brought it forth. A wave of biotic energy swept outwards, slamming into the Cerberus soldiers. "I will kill you all!"

Never mind. She was doing just fine.

Jamming her shotgun into the closest hostile, she pulled the trigger. Not to be outdone, I took out the other two.

"Petrovsky dies," Aria declared, reloading her shotgun. "Now."

"No argument here," I replied grimly. Ejecting the thermal clip from my sniper rifle, I slammed a new one home and moved towards the door—which refused to open. Thankfully, Shepard wasn't the only one who knew how to get around an electronic lock.

Sparing a thought for where the bloody hell Shepard had gone to, I finished the bypass and opened the door. Pushing me aside, Aria ran inside. I was right behind her.

* * *

We slowed down after a few steps and swept the room. It was… different from the last time I was here. There were no neon strobe lights flashing rhythmically, for starters. No pounding bass trying to shatter your eardrums and your bones. No stench of spilled booze, tangy sweat and fresh vomit. No strippers gyrating in skimpy clothes. No crowds of drunken, horny civvies filled to over-capacity.

Instead, the room was… empty. There were only a few tables and chairs, lit up by a series of light panels shining steadily from the ceiling. The main bar was surprisingly bereft of booze and glasses. In fact, if it wasn't for a few vid-screens showing a digital, never-ending flame, you would never know that this was Afterlife. Nerve centre of Omega. Throne room of Aria T'Loak.

Looking past the bar to the far side of the room and up to where Aria used to hold an audience for her favoured guests and lowly minions, I saw him. Oleg Petrovsky. Cerberus general. The Illusive Man's military genius.

The man who killed Nyreen.

"How does it feel, Aria?" he asked. "To watch Nyreen Kandros die, right in front of you, and know it was your fault? She was a good soldier, a fierce defender of the people of Omega. She stood fast and watched over them while you ran to save your hide."

I swore I could hear Aria grinding her teeth.

"It's a shame she had to die, Aria, after all her accomplishments and sacrifices. All that potential… wasted. Used for nothing but your petty ambitions and then tossed aside like garbage."

Aria's biotics flared to life. "You're a dead man!" she snarled. She ran towards Petrovsky like some asari avatar of vengeance. I watched her charge towards the bar, noting again the lack of booze laid out. Which made the odd arches stretching from the bar like a pair of crowns—or the jaws of some animal—all the stranger. And familiar.

With a start, I suddenly realized why it looked so familiar. "Aria, wait!" I called out.

But I was too late. Aria planted a foot on a nearby chair, planted another on the surface of the bar and hurled herself towards Petrovsky. As she reached the centre of the bar, the 'arches'—which I now realized were mass effect field emitters—came to life. Four streams of energy poured out like bolts of lightning; two wrapping around her hands while the other two grabbed her feet. Aria screamed in rage and tried to break free, but she wasn't strong enough. Before she knew it, she was caught in the middle of a stasis field, hovering in mid-air like a fly trapped in a web. Or a prize trophy on display. The nod of satisfaction from Petrovsky could have gone either way.

"What now, Petrovsky?" I asked. "You've lost control of Omega. There are civilian riots all across the station. And our forces are converging on your location. Surrender while you still can. It's over."

"Is that what you think?" he asked. "Maybe things seemed that way in the heat of battle. But from where I'm standing, I see an entirely different picture. Yes, the civilian population has risen up. Yes, the combined forces of your mercenaries and the Talons are running loose. But my forces are holding the line and keeping yours at bay."

"Other than me and Aria, you mean," I corrected. And Shepard—where _was_ he, anyway? "Not to mention Nyreen. She would have…"

I trailed off as something occurred to me. "She would have been here to fight alongside us," I said slowly. "If it wasn't for the adjutants." I looked up at him suspiciously.

"It wasn't a coincidence that Nyreen ran into them, was it? Not after you went to so much trouble to lock them up."

"Well done," he nodded approvingly. "Those adjutants were the last batch of test subjects, the ones we hadn't finished experimenting on. While Nyreen had demonstrated some… reservations in facing them in battle, I knew that she would overcome her fears if she was given the right incentive."

"You mean if civilian lives were at stake. Guess Aria isn't the only one who 'doesn't care who gets hurt."

"I knew that she would make the ultimate sacrifice if she deemed it necessary."

So much for Nyreen dying for Aria's petty ambitions. But then, it was pretty clear that Petrovsky had picked his words with care. He _wanted_ to goad Aria into doing something rash. To use a human aphorism, Petrovsky had played her like a… what is that human musical instrument? The one with the strings? Whatever. You get the idea.

"And she did," Petrovsky continued, oblivious to the thoughts racing through my head. "In one move, I took out the leader of the Talons, culled the remaining 'feral' adjutants and led Aria straight into my trap."

"And all it cost was the lives of a couple civilians," I said sarcastically. "What a bargain! Especially since they weren't human."

He smiled thinly, refusing to take the bait I laid out, before turning his attention to Aria. "I'd extend my offer of surrender one last time, but I suspect it would be wasted breath."

"Fuck you!" she spat.

"As I predicted," he sighed. "No matter. The fact remains that you are now my prisoner, which will likely have a demoralizing effect on your forces. After all, why bother fighting if your client can't pay?"

"Not all of them are fixated on the bottom line," I said. "Shepard, for instance, will keep fighting no matter what."

"Perhaps you can convince him otherwise," he replied.

"And why would I do that?"

"Because if you can't—or won't—I'll have to fall back to my next option."

"Which is?"

Petrovsky pressed a button on his console. Below him, a door opened. A large, misshapen shadow darkened the threshold before an adjutant lumbered on through. Followed by another. And another.

"These adjutants have been outfitted with a series of neural implants, unlike the ones you have previously faced. The Illusive Man regards them as the prototype for his future army."

"Why?" I asked. "Because they're under your control? Your colleagues—and your boss—had the same idea on more than one occasion. None of them ended well."

"No, they haven't," he agreed, much to my surprise. "Project Overlord on Aite—and his attempts to control the geth. Depot Sigma-23 in the Gorgon system—and his attempts to control the rachni. Chasca—and his attempts to control husks. The list goes on and on. While I have taken the liberty of installing fail-safes in the event they do go rogue, I do have some reservations nonetheless. Which is why I would prefer not to deploy them at all."

"And yet, there they are," I said, gesturing to the slavering horrors.

"I can send them back. All I ask is for you to stand down. Convince Commander Shepard and his forces to do the same. And all this bloodshed can come to an end."

"I can't do that," I growled.

He shook his head. "As you wish." He tapped another button, then looked down at the adjutants below him. "Target the turian. Take him out."

The lead adjutant leapt forward and shrieked. His grotesque buddies stepped forward. I lifted my sniper rifle and took aim.

And that was when the music started.

It started off as a quiet drumbeat, then suddenly grew louder as if someone had turned up the volume. After a few seconds, the percussion was joined by a melody of synthesized music. The adjutants slowed down, confused by the unexpected sounds.

They weren't the only ones. Petrovsky looked around in bewilderment. "What's happening?" he asked aloud.

My lips slowly curled into a knowing smile. Petrovsky might have been a strategic genius, but even he didn't anticipate this development. It was only fair that I offer an explanation. "One word," I replied.

"Shepard."

As a burst of synthesized music began playing over the—obviously hacked—comm system, a series of NavPoints popped up on my HUD along with a single text message:

 _Stasis generators and control consoles. Activate latter, take out former. I got your six.  
—S _

All right, then. Time to get to work.

* * *

I'll say this much for Petrovsky: he was nothing if not adaptable. He figured out my plan the moment I turned away from him and ran for the stairs. "Hold the perimeter!" he snapped at his pet adjutants. "Keep the turian away from the generators!"

" _We're talking away.  
I don't know what I'm to say.  
I'll say it anyway.  
Today's another day to find you." _

Roaring out loud, one of the adjutants fired a shot that glanced off my shields. I stumbled momentarily before recovering. The adjutant stretched its arm out to stop me, only to hastily pull back as a bullet, fired from wherever Shepard was hiding, blasted a hole in its hand. That bought me the time I needed to make it to the stasis generator control.

Activating the console, I ran back and found the corresponding stasis generator. Thanks to my earlier sprint, it was now exposed. One shot turned it to a pile of scrap.

" _Take on me (take on me).  
Take me on (take on me).  
I'll be gone  
in a day or two."_

Spinning on my feet, I ran for the next control console. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aria struggle. "You can't stop me so easily!" she cried out.

"Watch out!" I heard some Cerberus goon yell. "Aria's trying to overload the system!"

I recalled our earlier journey to the reactor and how she managed to make a hole in one of the force fields. If she could do that, overloading the stasis field might be possible. Which might make things messy for anyone nearby. I made a mental note to stay away from her until I'd taken out all the stasis generators, lest I be caught up in the backlash.

Of course, I had to actually take out the stasis generators first. Which might be a little difficult given the adjutant who'd just leapt up to block my path. As I slowed down to line up a shot, a fireball flew down from above to hit the beast right between the eyes. I snapped off an EMP to excite the plasma just before Shepard let off a shot from his sniper rifle. Then I squeezed the trigger on my own sniper rifle to finish the job.

" _So needless to say,  
I'm odds and ends.  
But that's me."_

Racing to the next stasis generator control, I hit the activation button, ran towards the next stasis generator, waited for a clear shot and fired my sniper rifle again.

Aria struggled against her restraints as she felt the field weaken. "I will kill you all!" she howled.

"We can't afford to lose any more generators!" I heard someone scream.

"Stop him!" Petrovsky shouted.

I ran to the next control console, ejecting my thermal clip and loading a new one. My ears registered the tell-tale sign of Shepard's sniper rifle firing. Given the number of targets on my HUD, though, it was clear that Shepard was mainly focused on keeping the hostiles pinned down and out of my way. Once Aria was freed and back in the game, then we could deal with Cerberus and their adjutant horrors.

Slapping the stasis generator controls, I ran back out. Crouching down, I peered through the scope of my rifle. The generator was about 27 metres away. Easy shot. Three down, one to go.

" _Stumbling away  
Slowly learning that life is OK.  
Say after me  
It's no better to be safe than sorry."_

"Enough!" I heard Aria say as I made my way towards the last control console.

"The stasis field's gonna overload!" another Cerberus goon warned.

"Hold the perimeter!" Petrovsky urged.

At last, I reached the control console and powered it up. Leaning around the corner, I propped my sniper rifle against the top of the stairs, aimed and fired. The last stasis generator went up in flames. Within seconds, the stasis field flickered and died.

As Aria dropped to the floor, a jagged burst of biotic energy lanced out like a bolt of lightning. Slamming into a nameless assault trooper, it drove him back into the wall before boring a hole right through his chestplate. "I'm back, you fuckers!" Aria declared as the trooper collapsed. "Omega's mine!"

" _Take on me (take on me).  
Take me on (take on me).  
I'll be gone  
in a day or two." _

Now that the stasis generators were destroyed and Aria was free, it was time to wreak some havoc. Starting with the adjutant lumbering my way. Shepard must have seen it too, as he sent a burst of plasma flying into its ugly face. I launched an EMP, backpedalled to avoid getting caught in the explosion, took out an assault trooper who got in my way, then finished off the adjutant with a point-blank shot to the kisser.

Shepard finally popped up from wherever he'd been hiding. Pausing long enough to raise his sniper rifle and fire a shot, he ran down the stairs to join me. "Hi there, Garrus. How's it going?"

"Oh, you know. Long day. Destroyed a lot of expensive equipment. Freed an asari crime lord." I fried a Centurion's shields before shooting him in the face. "You?"

"Hacked a comm system, shot various people—including an assault trooper over there. The usual."

"Gotcha."

"By the way, that assault trooper I mentioned? His buddy was an adjutant. Still alive last time I checked."

"Let's find a good place to greet it," I suggested.

We broke into a run, racing through the lower level of Afterlife and up a flight of stairs. Aria joined us after taking out yet another assault trooper. We slowed down to catch our breath, grab a few more thermal clips and figure out where to go next.

The arrival of an adjutant and two more assault troopers answered that question. Shepard and I took out the troopers while Aria hammered the adjutant with her biotics. Shepard launched a fireball, lobbed a grenade and fired a shot from his sniper rifle. Needless to say, he got the kill.

The adjutant was still collapsing when we resumed the hunt for fresh targets. We went around a column and almost ran over an assault trooper who was looking the wrong way. Aria made sure he never got the chance to regret his error.

" _Take on me (take on me).  
Take me on (take on me).  
I'll be gone  
in a day." _

About thirty metres ahead, we spotted another adjutant. I fired a shot from my sniper rifle while Aria and Shepard gave the horror a one-two punch of biotics and plasma. Just as Shepard plucked another grenade from his belt and hurled it forward, I spotted some movement. Turning to the left, I caught a Nemesis sniper with my EMP. The lightning was still crackling over her body when I blew her head off with a single shot.

Back to the adjutant. Aria and Shepard were busy filling its pale naked body with hot lead. I'm pretty sure it was Shepard who scored the final shot. I know he took out an assault trooper before reloading his rifle.

Aria raised her shotgun and pulled the trigger at another assault trooper. Instead of the usual percussive boom, I heard a dry 'click.' Frowning, she pulled the trigger again, only to get the same effect. The thermal clip had been spent. For a moment, I thought she would eject the clip and load a new one—especially as there were two more troopers closing in on her. Three on one were not good odds when the latter has no ammo. I raised my sniper rifle and prepared to cover her. "Aria!" I shouted.

To my disbelief, I heard her chuckle.

Then she sprang forward.

Uncoiling a biotic whip from her left hand, Aria wrapped it around one trooper's leg and yanked him off his feet. He was still falling as she weaved to the side, dodging another trooper's gunfire and wrapped her right arm around a third trooper's neck. She spun on her feet, forcing the hostile she had in a chokehold to awkwardly stumble along, and kicked the second trooper. As he staggered back, she swung her biotic whip at the first trooper, striking the gap between his helmet and his chestplate with surgical precision. As blood gushed from his neck, she finally released her grip on the third trooper, only to tackle him to the ground. She proceeded to pull his helmet off and punch him once, twice, three times. His cries of pain died down as she continued to pummel him.

The remaining trooper dropped his gun and tried to pry Aria off. Spotting her out of the corner of her eye, she sprang to her feet. She moved to the left as if to sidestep him. Just as he passed her, she whipped her arm out and wrapped it around his neck. They struggled. Then, with a flare of biotic energy, she broke his neck with a wet crunch.

Two down, one to go. Shepard and I exchanged looks and wordlessly agreed to let Aria continue. Unless she was overwhelmed, it seemed rude to step in. But it didn't look like she was in any kind of trouble.

Not until the trooper she had used as a punching bag pulled out a heavy pistol and opened fire at point-blank range.

Aria slowly stalked towards the trooper as he frantically squeezed the trigger, her barriers taking the brunt of the damage. Finally, one of his shots penetrated her barriers and hit her shoulder. Ignoring the pain, she picked him up and threw him into one of the holo-panels. His body seized up, then began twitching as the voltage from the panel's relays coursed through him.

Only then did Aria wince in pain, lifting an arm towards her wound.

"Here," I said. "Let me." I ran a quick medical scan using my omni-tool and determined that she had lucked out: the bullet was a through-and-through. Bit of medi-gel to patch up the hole and kick-start the healing and she'd be fine.

While I was waiting for the medi-gel to take effect, my omni-tool chimed. I looked at the message. Looked again. Stared at Aria as everything started to make sense.

"Come on," Shepard said, unaware of my discovery. "Let's clear the room."

" _I'll be gone (take on me)  
in a day."_

We swept the room, looking for thermal clips and hostiles. We found more than enough of the former. As for the latter, they were all dead.

All but one.

* * *

We made our way upstairs to the private lounge on the third floor. Once upon a time, this was Aria's de-facto throne room, where she observed the activities of the Afterlife club and deigned to greet her subjects. Petrovsky has usurped the lounge, along with everything else, when he drove her off Omega.

Speaking of which, we heard his voice come over the comm as we approached the door. _"Attention!"_ he called out. _"All Cerberus forces: surrender!"_

Did he just say 'surrender'? Shepard exchanged a look with me before he bent down and started bypassing the lock. I raised my sniper rifle and prepared to greet Petrovsky—and whoever else might be keeping him company—with hot lead. Just in case.

Turned out he was alone. And he wasn't in the mood for any further hostilities. "Cease and desist all aggression," he finished as we entered the lounge. "It's over."

He walked over to some kind of game board, where physical and holographic pieces stood in some kind of arcane arrangement. Leaning over, he knocked over one of the physical pieces before flicking a switch on the side. The holographic pieces faded away.

Then he turned to face us. "Commander Shepard," he said formally, "I surrender myself and my soldiers into your custody."

Aria pushed Shepard aside and walked up to Petrovsky, wisps of biotic energy trailing behind her. "That is the most pathetic thing I've ever heard," she said softly before backhanding him.

I think it was the biotic power behind the slap that knocked him to the floor. Petrovsky tried to pick himself up. "Shepard, I'm unarmed," he continued, directing his words towards the saner individual in the room.

Before Shepard could say anything, Aria hauled Petrovsky off the floor and threw him against the game board, sending the various pieces flying.

She put her hands around his throat and began to squeeze. Petrovsky struggled, but he'd apparently been taken off-guard, and Aria had her entire body weight pressing down on him. Maybe more than her body weight—with her biotics, she could increase her mass substantially.

"For all your scheming and planning, you made one mistake: you let me live. Looking back, I think you'll agree it was the biggest mistake of your life."

She doubled down on choking the life out of him. He began to flail more vigorously. "Do you feel that, Oleg?" she whispered into his ear. "That's death. Only inches away."

A gurgle was his only reply.

"Aria, stop." It took a moment before I realized that I was the one who said that.

"Don't go soft on me now, Garrus," she warned.

"You can't change what happened to Nyreen, Aria," I tried again.

"You don't know anything!" she snapped.

"I LOVED HER TOO!"

The words tore themselves out of my throat, filled with pain and regret. Shepard froze. Petrovsky stopped struggling. Even Aria paused in her homicidal activities.

"I loved her too," I repeated. "I know. I know how much pain you're feeling, because I feel it too. But killing Petrovsky won't bring her back. Nyreen wouldn't want you to kill him anyway. She always harped about doing the right thing—even when it drove the rest of us crazy. So I know that she wouldn't want you to avenge her death through cold-blooded murder."

"It's more than that," Aria said. "Nyreen isn't the only one who's died because of Cerberus."

"I know," I said again. "Lots of other people died as well. Like Liselle."

Aria froze. "What did you say?"

"That name sounds familiar," Shepard frowned.

"Three years ago, an asari named Liselle was captured for some mad scientist's crazy experiments," I replied. "A vorcha mercenary by the name of Geirk was hired to track her down and bring her back to Omega. Now Geirk isn't the kind of guy who can be hired by just anybody. You have to walk in the right circles—and have quite a bit of pull—to afford his services. Someone like Aria."

I faced Aria—who was still choking Petrovsky, but maybe not as vigorously—and continued. "Two years later, Liselle bumped into me while I was looking for a person of interest. Seemed a lot of people were looking for the guy and you got a little curious. So you ordered Liselle to intercept me and get me out of the way while you hunted him down yourself. You. Personally. Which meant that Liselle was pretty high in your criminal hierarchy or you trusted her enough to oversee these kinds of things. Or both."

"Get to the point, Garrus," Aria growled.

"All right," I nodded. "When Shepard told us about your proposal, I started to wonder how long you'd spent planning your big return. Imagine my surprise when I found out you'd only spent a couple weeks gathering your forces. After all, you told Shepard that you'd been exiled from Omega. Driven from your own territory. That's quite a blow to your reputation. I figured you'd start plotting your comeback as soon as you left the station.

"Instead, you made your way to the Citadel, found a seat at the Purgatory Bar and proceeded to spend your days knocking back drinks. Oh sure, you had Shepard unite the Blue Suns, Eclipse and the Blood Pack under your leadership in exchange for loaning them out for the war effort, but that was about it.

"Until you got a call. Just one. After that, everything changed. The number of calls you made and received skyrocketed. You began hiring every available merc and soldier-of-fortune you could find, not to mention every ship that could hold its own in a firefight. And then you sent an e-mail to Shepard with your proposal to take back Omega."

Aria grew very still. "How did you know about the call?"

"C-Sec might be mired in bureaucracy and red tape, but even they can't help but notice when Aria T'Loak, the Pirate Queen of Omega, sets up shop on the Citadel. They've been keeping tabs on you. Monitoring your communications."

"The call was encrypted."

"It was. C-Sec was stymied. But I know some people."

"Garrus," Shepard said. "What was the call about?"

"An informant on Omega who was living through the Cerberus occupation. He'd come across a report on Liselle's murder. The initial autopsy report stated that she'd died by exsanguinations after her throat had been slit by a kitchen knife. You blamed her lover, a man by the name of Paul Grayson.

"However, the follow-up examination revealed the presence of a tranquilizer in her bloodstream. The chemical composition of that tranquilizer was patented by a little-known pharmaceutical company… but was recently ID'd as a front for Cerberus. That report also found minute traces of genetic residue on the knife belonging to Kai Leng, a former Alliance soldier who'd joined Cerberus and had become the Illusive Man's personal assassin."

Shepard inhaled sharply at that one. I wasn't surprised. Kai Leng had caused a lot of grief in the name of his master. More importantly, he'd personally killed a good friend and comrade of ours. A reckoning was owed.

But I had to set that aside for the moment. "I guess that gave you more of an axe to grind, but it still didn't explain your behaviour. Not to my satisfaction, anyway. You were acting like Cerberus had hurt you personally. Maybe it was the loss of face when you were booted off Omega, but somehow I didn't think that was it. I didn't really understand what was going on until you got yourself injured just now.

"Before I gave you medi-gel, I ran a standard medical scan—which includes a genetic analysis profile. Nothing cutting-edge, mind you. Just the basic C-Sec forensic package. But it was good enough to automatically run a cross-comparison for any matches. And it found one: a 50% partial match between you and Liselle. The kind of match that you'd find between a mother… and her daughter."

The lounge was so quiet; you could have heard a pin drop.

"That's why you were so hell-bent on attacking Omega. That's why you've been running around half-cocked without any real plan. It had nothing to do with any blow to your pride or reputation, though there's no denying that both took a hit. It had nothing to do with Petrovsky, though going after the man who'd driven you off Omega was a bonus. It was about revenge. Revenge against the people who took your daughter away from you. You'd found out who was truly responsible and _you wanted them to pay_."

…

"Yes," Aria managed at last. "I did. I still do."

"If you want them to pay," I said, "really, _really_ want them to pay, you'll let Petrovsky live. Let him live because killing him isn't what Nyreen would've wanted. Because turning him over to the Alliance, and having them sweat every last bit of intel out of him, will hurt Cerberus more in the long run."

We stared at each other for a long time, the silence punctuated by Petrovksy's raspy wheezes.

Finally, Aria eased up on her death grip. "Today's your lucky day, Petrovsky," she hissed. You're going to live—for my partners and for the war against your master. You'd better cooperate."

"If not, I have a ship," Shepard added. "And I know the route to Omega."

Behind us, the door opened. Bray marched up the stairs and into the lounge. "Afterlife's secure," he told us. "Reports are coming in: Cerberus troops are surrendering all over the station."

"Good," Aria declared. "Shepard, you and your Alliance can decide his fate. On one condition."

"Yeah?" Shepard prompted.

"While you're running around saving the galaxy, think you'll have time to track down Kai Leng?"

Shepard's face darkened. "Count on it."

Her lips curled into a cold smile. "Be sure to send him my regards."

"Done."

"Good. Now get this _filth_ off my station."

As Aria stalked away, Petrovsky warily rose to his feet. "Commander Shepard, it seems this is where we part ways."

"Looks that way," Shepard said. "Bray, get him outta here."

"A moment, please," Petrovsky requested. "I'd owe this man—Garrus, isn't it?—my thanks. He saved my life, after all."

"Trust me, I'd rather let Aria finish you off," I growled.

"I understand. Nonetheless: thank you."

For once, Shepard wasn't peppering the general with questions. It seemed to violate the natural order of things. Someone had to restore the cosmic equilibrium before it was too late.

"Why surrender?"

Apparently that someone was me.

"Why not… I dunno…" I trailed off.

A faint smile crossed Petrovsky's face. "You expected me to order an all-out assault? Tell my forces to keep fighting, make you pay for every square metre, until your 'victory' tastes as bitter as defeat?"

"Maybe," I admitted.

The smile vanished. Petrovsky looked… insulted. "The men and women under my command went above and beyond in carrying out their duties. They did everything they were ordered to do and then some. I will not dishonour their efforts by throwing away their lives in a frenzy of false and futile heroics. I will not waste their lives trying to change that which cannot be changed. They deserve better than that."

"They went above and beyond because they had no choice," I reminded him. "Because they were brainwashed and reprogrammed by your boss. Because they had their choice and free will taken away from them. Maybe that's the one thing we can agree on: they do deserve better than that."

"Which is why every effort will be made to reverse what's been done to them," Shepard added. "And to offer counselling and treatment should we succeed. They'll need it—thanks to you."

He motioned to Bray, who grabbed Petrovsky by the arm, spun him around and shoved him towards the door. But watching them go, I couldn't help but think that Petrovsky had gotten exactly what he wanted. I thought about it some more. Then I gave up and walked towards Aria, Shepard close on my heels.

She was leaning against a rail, looking down on the lower levels of Afterlife. Below, civvies were slowly starting to trickle in. They moved tentatively, looking around as if seeing it for the first time. It probably was—at least, they probably hadn't seen the inside of Afterlife in a long time.

Aria glanced our way. "I've been waiting to kill that man for months," she told us. "Walk around with you two saps for a few hours, and I go all soft. The two of you are like a disease."

"The victory came at a cost, Aria," Shepard reminded her. "It's not soft to recognize that."

"You sound like a salesman trying to sell something. I admire your tenacity. And thanks to you, I have Omega back."

"So what's your plan?" I asked.

"There's a lot to rebuild," Aria sighed. "Starting with this… command centre. It may take some time to remove the general's stink from my throne." She shook her head. "Wonder if I'll ever really enjoy the pole dancing in here again."

"The citizens of Omega have been through a lot," Shepard said. "Try to remember that when the dancers are shaking their booty."

"How can I forget? There are reminders everywhere I look. And don't worry: I'll honour our arrangement. Troops, ships and a mountain of eezo. You earned it."

"I'll arrange for the Alliance to pick up Petrovsky and the remaining Cerberus troops," Shepard nodded. "Then I'll be going."

"Take this with you." Aria strode over to the game board, picked it up and tossed it to Shepard. "Might as well get the cleanup started. I have a station to whip into shape, after all. If you'll excuse me."

Aria walked over to one of the consoles while Shepard quickly scooped up all the game pieces that had been knocked over during the struggle. With a few keystrokes, she turned on the comm and set it to broadcast station-wide. "Citizens of Omega: hear me. I, Aria T'Loak, have given you back your lives."

Taking credit for other people's work. Figures.

"My rule is reignited. My hand is on the controls once more, and I will not let go again. Each of you owes a debt. Gain my favour by rounding up the remaining Cerberus invaders and…"

She stopped, visibly struggling. To my astonishment, a tear welled up in the corner of her eye. Angrily, she dashed it away before continuing. "…and we will cast them from our home, then bury and mourn our dead.

"My methods haven't always been popular and I can't promise that will change. But securing this station and everyone inside it is now my primary purpose. _No one_ will imprison us again.

"We may be bruised. We may be bloodied. But we. are. Omega!"

'We.' Not 'I'. Well wonders never cease?

As it turned out, we didn't have to wait long for the Alliance. Not long at all. It seemed that Admiral Hackett had managed to cobble together a task force with elements of the Sixth and Seventh Fleets and sent them to Omega. While we were busy scrambling for our lives, the task force occupied themselves by driving off the Cerberus fleet—and the reinforcements they were expecting. Once Shepard got a hold of them, they began sending ships to take on the prisoners.

There were a number of civvies who expressed interest in finding passage off Omega. Some of them just wanted to leave—given the hell they'd just endured, it made sense that they'd want to leave the first chance they got. Others wanted to find friends and family, that had left before Cerberus established the occupation, and bring them home.

A surprising number of those civvies were accompanied by Talons. It seemed that they had been hired as bodyguards—though they insisted the proper term was 'personal protection services.' I'd also heard that the Talons had accepted offers to guard various kiosks, shops and centres—again, they insisted on using 'proper terminology' like 'site security'—at surprisingly reasonable prices.

I think Aria thought this was all some kind of protection racket. She kept those illusions right up to the point where she asked for her cut. Bray had been there when it all went down and gave us a quick recap. Apparently, the acting Talon leader told her that this wasn't some kind of illegal scheme. The Talons had found new purpose in defending and protecting Omega's civilians—from Cerberus and from anyone else who would casually put their lives in jeopardy—and intended to continue as the new security force of Omega. In honour of Nyreen's memory, they would dedicate their lives to establish some kind of order on the station. Their days of smuggling drugs and paying crime lords were over. And there was nothing she could say or do to change their minds.

Aria wasn't happy, but then, she wasn't in a position to force the issue. The strongest, most well-armed and most organized faction was no longer a group that she could bribe or intimidate. The civilian populace knew who had abandoned them and who had stayed behind. She might've reclaimed Omega for her own, but she could no longer rule as if nothing had ever happened.

Rather than argue, Aria chose to concentrate her efforts on other matters. Specifically, organizing an impromptu memorial service for Nyreen outside Afterlife. It was standing room only. The Talons showed up in force, naturally. But there were a lot of civvies too, grateful for everything the Talons had done to resist the Cerberus occupation and ease the suffering they had endured.

Once the service had concluded, Bray walked over to us. "If you're ready, I'll take you to one of the Alliance ships," he said. "They'll get you back to the Normandy."

"You're playing delivery boy? Really?" Shepard shook his head. "You always get these crap details, Bray?"

"Not this time." He looked at Shepard with some measure of respect. From what Shepard had said, that was a far cry from his response the first time they'd met. "You got a galaxy to save. Come on: let's get you off this rock."

* * *

Bray led us to a shuttle. Went through the pre-flight checks. Flew us back to some Alliance ship—I couldn't remember which one. Shepard made sure I was settled before leaving to check in with the captain.

I thought about everything that had happened. Despite all the odds, despite all the unpleasant surprises and developments, we'd won. We'd accomplished our objectives. Cerberus had been driven off Omega. They'd lost their staging ground and base of operations in the Terminus Systems. This was a huge victory for the good guys!

And yet there had been casualties. By that, I didn't mean dry numbers on some spreadsheet. They weren't faceless individuals. They were people. Real people with names and families and loved ones. Or former loved ones, in my case. Maybe this was the depression phase that humans—and turians, apparently—go through when they're grieving.

My head jerked up as the door slid open.

"Hey there."

It was Shepard.

"Mind if I come in?"

"Sure."

He sat down next to me on the floor. Which was where I'd been sitting for the last… however long it had been. Apparently I'd eschewed the bed and chairs and desk in favour of the floor. That was probably symbolic in some way.

"So… wanna talk?"

"What, like an after-action report?"

Shepard gave me a look.

"Oh," I said curtly. "Right. That."

"Look, if you don't want to talk about her, that's fine. If you don't want to talk to me about her, that's fine. But sooner or later, you'll have to talk to someone."

"I know."

"So… wanna talk?"

"No."

"Okay."

* * *

I'll say this for Shepard: he knows when to give a guy some space. He stayed with me for a long time. Maybe an hour. Then he got up and left—but not before telling me that his room was across the hall and his door was always open.

He came again that evening. Gave me a chance to talk. When it became clear that I wasn't in the mood for conversation, he left—only to return with dinner. He wouldn't leave until I took a bite.

The next day, he came back. With breakfast. Then again a few hours later with lunch. If nothing else, he was determined to make sure I didn't starve myself during my self-imposed isolation.

At some point, I found myself thinking about our mission to Thessia. Or rather, the aftermath of our mission. Things hadn't exactly gone as we had hoped and Shepard had taken it hard. Really hard. I mean, we all did. We all knew the stakes, we all felt the pressure. But Shepard had felt it more. So when Kai Leng had snatched our one big chance for victory right from our grasp—seriously, that bastard has a lot to answer for—he had been crushed. Devastated. I was there for Shepard when he needed it, just as he was there for me now. I offered my support and my encouragement, and I'm sure he was ready to do the same. But he made the first move by admitting that he was lost. By talking about how he felt.

Guess it was time for me to do the same.

When he came back with dinner, I was ready. "Why don't you join me?" I offered.

His face lit up. "Sure," he said.

I finished most of my meal before I was ready to talk. Well, I could've mopped up that last bit of sauce with my fishcake, but I was pretty full. And Shepard was _this_ close to bursting with questions. So I guess I felt sorry for the guy.

"You remember that chat we had just before taking the Normandy through the Omega-4 relay?"

"Yeah."

"Remember how I was telling you how turians work off stress."

"Yeah—wait. That woman who you fought eight rounds in the ring before holding the tiebreaker in her quarters. That was Nyreen? "Damn."

He was quiet for a moment. Then "What was she like?"

"You met her. She hadn't changed that much."

"Then she totally kicked your ass in the bedroom."

"Hey!"

"I bet she gave the better performance that night."

"Look, my performance skills are just fine."

"TMI, Garrus. TMI."

We spent the rest of the night talking about Nyreen. How rigid and inflexible and utterly infuriating she was. How caring and giving and passionate she was. How happy she'd be to know that the people she swore to protect were now free and the hellhole that somehow had become her home was now safe.

She could finally join the spirits and be free.

* * *

 _Author's Note: the song in this chapter was 'Take On Me,' by A-ha. For readers in the know, this was an homage to the series finale of Chuck. Readers who have perused 'Something from the Citadel' and 'Archangels of Light and Darkness' will recognize the call-backs in this chapter. I laid the seeds a long, long time ago and it's a pleasure—and relief—to finally reap the harvest. So to speak._

 _Hopefully you enjoyed my take on Mass Effect 3: Omega. Now that it has come to an end, I'll return you to my ME3 novelization 'The Hero Rises.' See you next month!_


End file.
